


Make A Wish

by mythras_fire



Category: Roswell (TV), Tarzan (TV)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, FPF, Tarzan the Series Forum: Spring Fling challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-10-08
Updated: 2004-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-03 18:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 32,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/384542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythras_fire/pseuds/mythras_fire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU- Story follows logical continuation of Tarzan, taking place one month after 'End of the Beginning' in the Big Apple, where Max and Liz Evans have lived for 10 years.<br/>Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Tarzan or Roswell, just borrowing John and Max for a while and promise to return them when I’m done (don’t hold your breath though…). That said, no infringement of copyrights intended on any text, songs, or movie references used below.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Your rules are lies!

**Author's Note:**

> * This was my first fan fiction story :) and try as I might, I couldn’t fit all the elements from the contest into a shorter story. Thanks to US (cassiakohn) for helping me out with some of the element ideas. Enjoy!  
> * Tarzan the Series Forum 'Spring Fling' required story elements: *6' length of rope; *bottle of cabernet sauvignon; *bouquet of spring flowers; *911 Porsche with New York vanity plates that spell "GOTLUV"; *hollow point bullet; *black leather jacket; *stray cat with three kittens.  
> * The story is complete, and will be posted in chapters, 20 in all, 32,361 words, written over the course of at least six months back in 2004.

**Chapter 1**

“Your rules are lies!” Tarzan exclaimed, glaring at Jane with a stubborn look on his face. They were sitting in Kathleen’s living room, and Tarzan was being just a tad bit stubborn. It was adorable.

Trying to contain her laughter, Jane said, “Tarzan, my rules aren’t lies, and besides, they’re not even my rules. This is how you play War, and you’re still a beginner. I know you think that the eight of hearts should win over the queen of spades, because the queen’s not a number, but that’s not how you play the game. These cards with the pictures on them are called ‘face cards’ and they win over all the number cards, understand?”

“No, but Aunt Kathleen said this would help me remember my numbers for when the tutor comes, so I should learn how to play anyway.”

“Oh, is she coming today? How are your lessons going? I heard that you went through the entire alphabet yesterday,” Jane said with a smile. The week before, Tarzan had begun taking lessons three times a week from a tutor, and already he knew his numbers and was starting to memorize the alphabet.

“Yes,” Tarzan stated in his usual one-word manner. After a few moments of silence, he caught her hand as she cleaned up the cards to put them away.

“Jane”

Jane looked up into his eyes and immediately stopped what she was doing. It never failed- even after three months of seeing Tarzan all the time, she was still taken aback at the beauty and intelligence in those sparkling, blue depths.

“Yes?”

“Stay with me when the tutor comes today.”

“Umm… Are you sure that’ll be okay with your tutor and your aunt?” Jane asked nervously. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to stay with Tarzan during his lesson, it was that she _did_ want to stay but was unsure that she should. It was Friday, her day off, and she would have liked nothing more than to just spend the day with him, except she was still trying to tell herself that they were just friends…good friends. But lately her resolve had been melting more quickly than usual when she saw all the steps Tarzan was taking to become part of society, and in the depths of her heart she knew he was really only doing this so he could be with her.

“If what will be okay with me?” Kathleen asked as she walked into the living room. Tarzan turned around, still holding onto Jane’s hand and asked, “Can Jane stay with me when the tutor comes?”

“Why not, as long as she doesn’t distract you from learning,” Kathleen said, winking at Jane. Blushing a little, Jane quickly said, “Don’t worry, Kathleen. I will just sit in the background and observe.”

“No. You will sit with me,” Tarzan said like it was the end of discussion.

“Okay John, just remember Liz is here to teach you so you need to pay attention to her and not Jane when she’s talking, alright?” Kathleen said with a chuckle, knowing full well that John did not get distracted easily at all…except when Jane was around.

Just then Mary walked into the room to tell them the tutor had arrived.

“Thank you, Mary. Well, John, shall we go up to your old room now?” They had taken the dust covers off everything and cleaned up John’s childhood bedroom in the hopes that he would feel more ‘at home’ when he resumed learning about the world through books and lessons.

“Yes.” Still holding onto Jane’s hand, the two of them made their way up the stairs to John’s old bedroom as Kathleen led the way.

In the last week or so Tarzan had taken to holding Jane’s hand whenever he got the chance, and he was glad when she didn’t push him away. He could tell that she was still fighting with her emotions over how she felt about him, but at least she was letting him in a little bit at a time. Tarzan had waited this long, so he could wait until she was able to feel openly for him as he had for her since the night he met her. And more than that, she had been calling him Tarzan when they were alone, so just that was enough to give him hope that eventually she would be able to accept him completely into her heart.

“Hi John, how are you today?” the tutor, Liz Evans, asked as the three of them walked into the room.

“Fine, thank you. How are you?”

“Very well, thank you for asking.”

Jane looked at John in surprise. “Wow, John, did you guys learn about greeting people already?”

Liz answered for Tarzan by saying, “No. Actually he said that to me the very first time we met, too. He must have picked it up from watching others interact.”

“I hear you say it all the time,” John said simply to Jane, giving her a smile.

“Well, that’s great John, very impressive,” Jane said.

Kathleen stepped forward and addressed Liz. “Liz, this is Jane Porter. Jane, this is Liz Evans, a friend of the family and John’s new tutor. Jane is John’s friend, and is going to join him today for his lesson, is that alright?”

“Sure, it’s fine. Come have a seat John, and we’ll get started. Jane, you can sit wherever you like. Today we’re going to review the alphabet and then we’ll see how many of your numbers you remember from the other day, John.”

Tarzan immediately went and sat down Indian-style on the floor in front of his bed, pulling Jane down with him. Liz knew all about his life growing up in the jungle and knew that he would eventually feel as comfortable sitting in a regular chair as he did now sitting on the floor, so she hadn’t said anything when he did the same thing at their first lesson a week ago.

Tarzan looked at Jane and smiled this big goofy grin, like he was all set to learn now that she was here, and turned his attention to the letters Liz was writing on the whiteboard they had set up in the room for his lessons. Jane smiled back, and decided that relaxing around John just for once couldn’t hurt, right? She stretched her legs out in front of her, the tips of her boots touching John’s bare feet slightly, and turned her attention to Liz….

*****

“So, how did our lesson go today?” Kathleen asked as she poked her head in the door an hour later.

“It went great, Kathleen, you have a really intelligent nephew here,” Liz replied, smiling warmly at Tarzan, who was still busy poring over the child’s alphabet book in his hands.

Jane stood up from her place next to Tarzan and walked over to talk to the two women. “You should have seen him, Kathleen, the man has a mind like a steel trap,” Jane said, grinning.

Kathleen returned the grin. “I _have_ seen him. I was present at his last two lessons and he is just soaking all this new information up like a sponge. Maybe some of it is simply coming back to him after lying dormant in his brain for all those years.”

After a few more minutes talking about John’s progress and what he needed to study for the session on Monday, Liz announced that she had to go.

“Max is coming to pick me up for a night on the town” she said, grinning at Kathleen. “We’re going to go dancing and eat at this nice Mexican restaurant that reminds us of the place in Roswell where we had our first date. Oh, look at me, I’m gushing again. Sorry, Jane, but this year is the big 3-0 and my husband always takes me somewhere fabulous,” Liz said all in a rush, her cheeks blushing a pretty pink color.

“Really? That’s great! What day? Mine is next Wednesday, although not my thirtieth.”

Tarzan, who was only half-listening to the conversation while looking at his alphabet book, looked up with curiosity when Jane said something about Wednesday. What did she have on Wednesday, he wondered? And what was this ‘big 3-0’ Liz was talking about? He would have to ask Kathleen about it later, she would know. Maybe if this thing that Jane was having on Wednesday was a special thing, then he could try to impress her somehow with what he had learned so far in his lessons about fitting in with society both in and out of the ‘classroom’. He just wanted to be with her, and maybe this ‘big 3-0’ would help him achieve his goal; Jane did look happy talking about it.

“Well, of course not! You look so young. Mine is tomorrow actually, but we like to go out the night before and then spend my birthday together the next day just relaxing at home in each other’s company.”

“Oh, that sounds so romantic. Happy early birthday then!” Jane said, giving Liz a small hug as they walked downstairs towards the front door, with Tarzan following silently behind. She had only just met this woman, but Jane already liked her a lot. She had olive skin, beautiful shoulder-length dark brown hair, doe brown eyes and a slim but short figure that made her have to look up at John whenever he stood next to her.

When they reached the porch steps, Jane heard the loud roar of an engine and turned her head to see a pristine, black 911 Porsche coming down the street. Jane didn’t know a ton about cars, but when Sam was your partner and the precinct was full of men, you tended to pick up things about cars seemingly through osmosis.

When the black Porsche rolled to a stop, Jane noticed that it had vanity plates that read: “GOTLUV”. Chuckling to herself about what kind of guy would want that as his license plate, she stopped caring as soon as she saw the man who got out of the car to come greet his wife with a not-so-chaste kiss on the lips.

Trying to find something else to look at, Jane turned around, looking for Tarzan. He appeared silently before her from off to the side of the porch where he had been watching everyone.

“…Jane… I’d like you to meet my husband, Max. Max, this is Jane Porter, a friend of John and Kathleen,” Liz said once she had regained control of her senses.

“Hi Jane, nice to meet you,” Max Evans said, extending his hand to shake Jane’s. “Hi, Kathleen.” He was dressed in a black leather jacket with a white cotton t-shirt underneath, tight blue-jeans and black shoes. He oozed charm and class, and those soulful brown eyes weren’t the only stunning features Max possessed. He also had tanned skin, dark brown hair like Liz, just short of brushing his eyes, and a physique almost as built as Tarzan’s, but older by about six years.

“Nice to meet you, Max,” Jane said as Tarzan slipped an arm around her waist. He wasn’t sure he liked the way she was staring at Max. Jane was his, and even though he knew Max was married and appeared to be happy with his wife, he just wanted to make sure it was clear she was his mate.

Jane actually welcomed the embrace from Tarzan, feeling smug on the inside that she too had a gorgeous man at her side that she loved. The only problem was that she just couldn’t bring herself to admit that out loud yet and especially not to Tarzan directly.

Kathleen was standing off to the other side of the porch, watching the two couples and having a grand old time. She knew her nephew was wearing down Jane’s defenses and that it was only a matter of time before he made her his mate, as he liked to call her. But she was just as happy to see that Max and Liz’s relationship was as strong as ever. They had been through their own share of traumatic experiences back home in Roswell, now almost 10 years ago, but had come through stronger than ever, and with a love for the ages, some family members said.

Max’s father Philip had been a lawyer out in Roswell but relocated to New York City a year or two after Max and Liz left and got married, ready to start out in their lives together. That’s when Kathleen met Mr. Evans through her sparing with Richard over the past decade, and had come to know Max and Liz. When Liz heard Kathleen was looking for a tutor for John, she gladly volunteered to help John out. Even though she was a scientist by profession, she had always had a love of learning, and since she had just procured a sabbatical from work, she assured Kathleen that she would get all the proper teaching methods and materials before tutoring John.

“That is some ride you’ve got there. My partner down at the precinct is going to hit the roof when I tell him I got to see a 911 Porsche up close,” Jane commented, inwardly smirking at the fun time she was going to have telling Sam.

“Yeah, she’s a beauty, isn’t she? I actually wanted the one that was this sweet, strawbehrry red color, but someone else had already paid for it and just hadn’t come to pick it up yet, so I chose classic black and that’s been fine,” Max explained, looking at the car and then back to Liz and Jane.

After Max and Liz had said their goodbyes and driven off in their Porsche after a few minutes of pleasantries, Kathleen walked back into the house, and headed in the direction of her office.

Jane pulled Tarzan back inside to the living room, determined to get him to understand the rules of War…


	2. The Big 3-0

Later that evening, Kathleen sat working in her office. She was concentrating so hard on the figures in the chart on her desk that she didn’t see or hear Tarzan come into the room and walk right up to where she was seated.

“Kathleen,” said Tarzan softly. He didn’t want to startle her but it never seemed to fail. She was always too busy focusing on whatever she might be doing to notice Tarzan’s silent approaches.

Kathleen jumped a little at the sudden voice calling her name and looked up at Tarzan, a little embarrassed. “Sorry John. I know I should be used to your sudden appearances by now, but I was really engrossed in these figures. So, what’s on your mind?”

Tarzan had a confused look on his face and he took a few moments to remember how to say what he wanted to ask. “What is ‘the big 3-0’?”

“The big 3-0?” Kathleen repeated.

“Yes. Liz told Jane tomorrow is the big 3-0 and Jane looked really happy,” Tarzan explained, staring straight at Kathleen.

Realization dawned on her face as she remembered Liz’s announcement earlier that afternoon. “Oh, that! Liz was telling Jane that it’s her 30th birthday tomorrow.”

“Her birthday?”

“Yes, we celebrate the day we were born and usually we have a party and invite friends who bring presents.”

“Presents?”

“Yes, people bring gifts like toys or dolls for kids and in Liz’s case, a birthday can be a really special and romantic evening out with the one you love. You know, if you want to learn more about birthdays and celebrations, I’m sure Liz would be happy to tell you about hers or about what happens in general at birthday celebrations.”

“Do I have a birthday?”

“Of course. Your birthday isn’t until the spring though, so you have a while to learn all about it. I heard Jane say her birthday is this next Wednesday, however,” Kathleen added, curious to see what John’s reaction would be.

“Yes. Can I give her a present?” Tarzan asked. Surely if this birthday was a special event then Jane would see how much Tarzan wanted to be with her.

“That would be great, John. Maybe you should ask Liz for some advice on what to get Jane when she comes for your next lesson on Monday.”

“Okay… thank you Kathleen.”

“You’re quite welcome John,” Kathleen smiled warmly at her nephew.

*****

“Nikki, I’m home,” Jane called into the apartment Saturday evening as she came in from another exhausting day at the precinct.

Nikki came out of her room, music blaring behind her, to see if she really had heard Jane or if it was just the music making her hear things.

“Oh it is you. Hi, how was your day? Catch any bad guys today?” Nikki teased. She loved using that cliché and Jane always gave her one of her patented annoyed-older-sister looks.

“Actually, yes we did. Sam and I finally cornered one of the informants that have been supplying one of the gangs up here with info from the Bronx gang that is running that illegal ammo ring. That poor guy is not going to see the light of day until he confesses where they’re hiding all the truck loads of cargo with the ‘hot’ ammo. We’re closing in on them Nik, I just know it,” Jane stated with conviction, although a slight shiver ran down her spine.

Jane’s precinct was abuzz with nervous anticipation of catching the thugs who were making illegal rounds of the most dreaded ammunition NYPD cops had seen in a very long time: so-called cop-killers, or hollow-point bullets. The kind that could rip right through a bullet-proof vest. Long, narrow, and pointed at the tip, these bullets were definitely something to be feared, and it had Jane more than a little worried as gangs in the upper areas of Manhattan got their grubby little hands on them. Her own experience with getting shot by that sniper made her dread them even more. On top of that she worried that Tarzan might come face to face with a gangster sporting a semi-automatic with hollow-point bullets on one of his nightly journeys through the city.

In Jane’s bedroom, Tarzan dropped silently to the floor after coming in through the now-always unlatched window. He heard voices coming from the kitchen, but more than that he smelled the unmistakable sweet scent of Jane, and the more normal scent of her younger sister. He walked to the door leading to the hallway and listened for a moment before making his way over to where he could see the two sisters talking at the kitchen counter.

“Damn, it’s almost like a scene straight out of the last ‘Lethal Weapon’ movie, you know,” Jane said to Nikki, shaking her head but half-smiling at the same time. “Except it’s in New York, has gangs and no Chinese counterfeit ring as villains, and instead of Danny Glover we have our very own Sam Sullivan for comedy relief.”

Nikki smiled broadly and added, “Yeah, and no hottie like Mel Gibson,” and then started chuckling to herself at Jane’s age-old crush on the Australian movie star.

“Who is Mel Gibson?” Tarzan asked, materializing from the shadows of the hallway, and walking straight over to where Jane was leaning against the sink in the small kitchen area with a cup of tea in her hand.

Seeing Jane blush both because of her comment about Mel Gibson and the fact that John had entered the room, Nikki couldn’t help teasing Jane some more. “Oh, you know John, Jane’s only had a crush on him for, oh say, like, for-e-ver! But hey! Now she’s got you so who needs Mel, right?” she said while steering wide around Jane to avoid any death glares and went snickering back into her room before Jane could think of a snappy come-back.

Tarzan simply kept his gaze focused on Jane, and asked in a quiet voice, “crush?”

Jane reached her hand out to rub Tarzan’s left arm trying to distract him while stuttering out that a crush was someone that you liked but you didn’t tell that person how you felt about them.

Tarzan thought about this for a moment, and then he leaned in a little closer, reaching his right hand out to caress Jane’s cheek with the backs of his fingers, and stated with that devilish grin of his, “You have a crush on me.”

Turning beet red, Jane could only stare into those twinkling blue eyes and stand there with her mouth open ready to protest as soon as she could form the words to do so. ‘Well, if you think about it the way Tarzan would, then yeah, it would be logical for him to assume that,’ Jane thought to herself. And he was perfectly right. She not only had a crush on him, she was painfully aware of how she felt about him when he was around, and the feeling was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

Deciding to call his bluff, although she knew he was dead serious, she replied, “Oh yeah? What makes you say that?”

Tarzan gathered a handful of Jane’s flowing red hair in his hand and sniffed it slowly, saying softly in her left ear, “Your scent changes when I’m around you.”

Leaning back to look in her eyes, he continued, placing a hand above her heart. “Your heart beats faster and your body gives off more heat when I am near you, when I touch you.”

Mesmerized, Jane stood as still as a statue and let Tarzan continue.

“And you do not tell me how you feel about me in words, but your body does, every time we are together. That is how I know you have a crush on me,” he repeated, taking his hand off her heart and stepping away from Jane to give her room to breathe.

Running a hand nervously through her hair, Jane took a deep breath, pushed off from the sink and walked over to the fridge, purposely avoiding Tarzan’s gaze. “Are you hungry? Do you want some dinner? Cuz I’m starving. I could eat a horse right now.”

“Why would you want to eat a horse?” Tarzan asked, moving to stand next to the open fridge door where Jane was rummaging for food.

Jane pulled her head out of the fridge to give Tarzan an incredulous look before saying, “Tarzan, it’s just an expression. I don’t really want to eat a horse. It just means I could eat a lot of food right now.”

Jane bent to look into the fridge again but stopped when she felt a hand on her arm.

“I will wait.”

Jane nodded slightly and covered his hand with hers. “Thank you.”


	3. Birthday plans

Liz was getting ready to start her lesson with John on Monday morning as he padded into the room in his usual attire: sleeveless, blue-green, button-down shirt that was missing a few buttons at the top; khaki-colored cargo pants that looked like they were about ready to disintegrate; and the defining feature- bare feet. His unruly blond hair was tucked behind his ears and he looked uncharacteristically serious about something.

“Good morning, John, is something wrong? You look as though you’re worried about something,” Liz asked, putting the dry-erase markers on the whiteboard ledge and turning to face Tarzan as he sat down on the floor in front of the bed.

“Good morning, Liz. I want to know about birthdays. What did you do for your birthday this weekend?” Tarzan asked, getting right to the point.

“You want to know what we did? Well, Friday night Max took me out to a romantic dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours and we had red wine and steak. Then we went dancing which is something that we both love to do, is lots of fun, and can be very romantic when it’s a special occasion. The next day, he gave me a beautiful bouquet of white roses, my favorite, when I woke up, and we just spent the whole day together,” when Liz finished speaking she had a far-away look in her eyes and John sat there watching her very carefully.

‘She looks very happy and in love, because of what she did on her birthday. I want Jane to feel like that and look at me like that. I must find out how to make Jane feel that way for her birthday,’ Tarzan thought to his self, more determined than ever that this was the way to Jane’s heart.

“Liz?”

Liz snapped out of her reverie to look down at John, “Yes?” She asked as she took a seat in a chair near the whiteboard across from John.

“Could you tell me how to plan a birthday for Jane? I want to celebrate with her.”

Liz smiled broadly at the innocent but happy look on John’s face. They had to be more than just friends; she had noticed that from the start on Friday. From the look in John’s eyes, she would wager that there was definitely a budding romance between those two, and she would be delighted to help make it bloom.

“Of course, that’s what I’m here for, right? Well, let’s get started then, shall we? You can ask your aunt for all the supplies we’re going to need, I’m sure she’ll be happy to oblige…”

*****

“What kind of sandwich did you get, Jane?” Sam asked as he walked up to her in the main room of the precinct from outside where he had bought his own sandwich from a vendor. “Tuna fish,” she replied, taking another bite. After she swallowed she sat up suddenly to say, “….Oooh! Sam, guess what? You’ll never believe the car I saw on Friday! I saw a 911 Porsche, up close and personal and talked to the owner too,” Jane taunted.

Sam stopped taking the wrapper off his sandwich and set it down on his desk to look dubiously at Jane. “You what? And you’re just telling me this now? What kind of partner are you? I thought we were a team, man,” he complained, trying out his best guilt-trip on her to see if she’d crack.

Jane however wasn’t about to crack, but she was about to crack up, and so tried to keep from giggling mischievously. “We were too busy tracking down Larry the informant! Besides, relax, the Evans’s are friends of the Claytons and Liz is the one tutoring John. Maybe some time, if you’re good, we’ll go see them when Max comes to pick her up after one of his lessons.”

Still grumbling about why Jane got to see the classic Porsche and he didn’t, when all she could probably do was to stare at it, then at the inevitably handsome owner, and not even ask any interesting questions, Sam resumed removing the wrapper from his sandwich and gave Jane the evil eye as she grinned at him in between mouthfuls of tuna.

*****

That evening Jane and Nikki were hanging out, watching Nikki’s favorite actor, Orlando Bloom, in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

“Man, could he be any hotter?” Nikki breathed out, referring to a particularly spectacular scene where Orlando Bloom’s character Will Turner was swashbuckling with the equally handsome Captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp’s black-eyeliner-wearing character.

“Just wait till we go see “Troy”. Have you seen the trailers for it? I am definitely looking forward to watching Brad Pitt fight in a short, metal skirt,” Jane said, giggling and blushing at the same time.

“Jane, isn’t your birthday on Wednesday?” Nikki asked suddenly.

“Whoa, random much?” Jane asked, turning to look at her sister.

“Well, I just remembered because I won’t be here Wednesday night to celebrate with you. I am going to a concert with some friends, who bought the tickets months ago, and we won’t be back till late,” Nikki explained.

“Oh, that’s okay Nik, I wasn’t planning on doing anything special anyway. We can do something fun this weekend when we’re both free. Maybe I’ll invite John over to watch a movie with me or something. He might get a kick out of this movie. Goodness knows I don’t have any problems watching it more than once,” Jane replied, grinning at the last part of her statement while glancing back at the screen.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s no problem, really.”

Nikki reached over to give Jane a hug and then sat back up. “Thanks, you’re the best. I’ll have to remember to get you something really nice for your birthday…..oh wait, I just did. A night all alone with your Jungle Man. Oh the possibilities…” Nikki teased as she expertly dodged the pillow Jane threw at her in response, her cheeks visibly red, even in the semi-darkness of their living room.


	4. Invitation

Tuesday afternoon Sam and Jane were eating lunch in the park near the precinct. When they were finished, they began walking along the path on the way back to the precinct when Tarzan suddenly dropped out of a tree a few feet in front of them.

“John! You scared me!” Jane exclaimed, clutching her hand to her holster, Sam crouching down just a little, ready to get out of the way if it had been an attacker. It wasn’t really the act of Tarzan dropping out of the tree that had startled Jane, but more the fact that she hadn’t had the faintest idea that he was even in the area. She knew that his stealth came in handy in the jungle, and also here in the urban jungle of New York, but it still unnerved her just a little.

“I am sorry. Hi Sam,” Tarzan replied, glancing at Sam as he stood up straight to walk over to Jane.

“Hey John. How about next time, drop down from a tree farther down and walk over to us? And then maybe I won’t have to die from a heart attack every time I’m around Jane when we’re outside.” Sam half-joked, trying his best not to look flustered.

Only giving Sam a sideways glance, Tarzan turned his attention back to Jane. “Jane, come look at this.”

Tarzan grabbed Jane’s hand before she had a chance to protest and began walking towards the tree from which he had dropped to the ground. The big oak was planted near the entrance to the park and its great branches spread halfway over the park path and halfway over a wall that had an alley on the other side in between a few buildings.

“What is it Tarzan?” Jane asked as she was pulled along. Maybe if she used his real name it would get his attention and he wouldn’t do what she was dreading he’d do, which was vault into that tree with her dangling below like they had up at the cabin.

Sam was following them at a distance, enjoying watching his partner get all flushed in the mere presence of ‘monkey boy’ there. He knew it was only a matter of time before she finally gave into her feelings for him and he was glad for them both.

Tarzan didn’t respond until they reached the base of the oak tree. “I found an animal. It is hurt. But I do not know if it is a good animal or a bad animal. Come see.”

“You mean you wouldn’t want to help if it was a bad animal, even though it’s wounded?” Jane asked.

“In the jungle, if you do not eat your enemies, they will eat you. Even if you help them when they are in danger, they will turn on you as soon as they are free.” Tarzan said, remembering all the perilous encounters he had had growing up with Sabor, the lioness and Histah, the snake.

“Okay, now you’ve got me worried. What does it look like?”

“There is a big one. It is lying in a box and its tail moves back and forth. There are three little ones also in the box that climb all over the big one.”

“So what do you think Dr. Doolittle is talking about, partner? Sounds to me like it’s either a stray cat or dog.” Sam quipped from the bench he was now sitting on underneath the expansive oak.

“Neither of which John ever saw while he was in the jungle, so how is he supposed to know the difference Sam,” Jane answered, glaring at him in an effort to get him to humor Tarzan’s curiosity.

“Okay, John, can you show me where this animal is?” Jane asked, turning back to face Tarzan, only to find him nowhere in front of her.

“Give me your hand,” Tarzan asked from above Jane where he was hanging from a low-lying branch.

Jane tentatively reached up and grabbed on. Tarzan swung her back and forth a few times and then pulled her up into the tree with him. Sam watched this display of unnatural strength with a twinge of envy, secretly wishing he was that agile in a tree. He was lucky if he could jump up to hang onto a branch without falling down flat on his back. A good cop he was, an acrobatic tree climber he was not.

Once Jane was securely standing on the thick tree branch, Tarzan walked out over the wall on a far-reaching branch to point down to where the animals were. Only a little more confident of her tree-walking skills this time around, Jane clung to the trunk as she made her way over to where Tarzan was doubling back to help her across.

Jane peered down into the alley to look where Tarzan was pointing, and she noticed the cardboard box on its side, forming a little shelter where a mother cat and her three kittens were huddled. The kittens were suckling on the mother’s teats and she was lying there with a content but sleepy look on her face. Jane realized that Tarzan mistook her supine position and the action of the kittens to mean that the mother cat was hurt and that the kittens were trying to help her out.

‘I guess he could mistake that for something more severe. I mean, he’s never seen cats before and if there weren’t a lot of animals in his part of the jungle with young that suckle like that after they’re born, then it would make sense that he wouldn’t recognize it for what it was,’ Jane thought to herself as she inched her way back towards the trunk of the tree.

“What are they?” Tarzan asked when he too came back to the center of the tree.

“Those, Tarzan, are cats. The big one is the mother cat and she isn’t hurt, she’s just resting while her babies, the kittens, drink milk from those little bumps on the underside of her stomach.” Jane gave Tarzan her most sympathetic look. “So you have nothing to worry about, they’re fine.”

Tarzan looked a little confused but still nodded at Jane’s explanation. “Oh, and cats are good animals. At least the little furry ones like those are. Lots of people even keep them as pets because they make nice companions to humans.”

“Oh. Would you like to get down now?” Tarzan asked, his curiosity sated for the moment. The next time he saw a cat, he would know what it was and would be able to watch it more closely.

“Yes, please,” Jane answered, glad to get back to solid ground, even if she was up a tree with a “Jungle Man” as Nikki had put it. Thinking of that made Jane remember what she had planned for Wednesday night with John. ‘I’ll have to ask him over before he leaves in a few minutes,’ she told herself.

After the two of them were safely on the ground, Sam got up from the bench to ask what Jane had seen. “It was just a stray cat with three young kittens that were feeding while the mother rested. No biggie,” Jane answered.

“Hah! I called it! Well, that was exciting! Okay then, let’s get back to work partner. There’s bad guys to be caught deservin’ of a major ass whoopin’ by none other than yours truly, and I intend to deliver….” Sam rambled on as Tarzan and Jane walked behind him- not hand in hand, because she was on duty, they were in a very public place, and still too close to the precinct- but instead just really close side by side.

Sam walked ahead for another 30 seconds, still goin’ on and on about what he would do to whichever gang member he could get his hands on first, before he stumbled most ungracefully over a large sloppily-coiled bundle of rope that was lying haphazardly on the path, mostly hidden by the dead leaves and tree shadows.

“Ahhhhh!” Sam yelled as he lunged forward a few steps in an attempt to right himself. After regaining his equilibrium, he straightened his suit and tie, and purposely ignored the snickers coming from behind him.

“Uh Sam? Try to walk there, partner,” Jane said to his back anyway.

Tarzan spoke up, “Sam, you are not aware of your surroundings, you need---” but was cut off by Jane who put a hand over his mouth. “No Tarzan, you don’t want to do that when Sam has just made a fool of himself,” she whispered in his ear as Sam trudged on, trying to look like he hadn’t just tripped over a plain old pile of braided rope.

“Why not?” Tarzan whispered back after she removed her hand, reveling in how close Jane was standing with her hand still grasping his arm as they walked at a leisurely pace down the street.

Jane dropped her hand to her side when she realized where it still was and answered him. “You think he’s sarcastic now? Just wait till we get back to the precinct. He’s going to be insufferable,” Jane replied, rolling her eyes.

Tarzan gave her one of those patented “I didn’t understand any of that but that’s alright” looks and continued walking down the street following Sam.

Jane just smiled and suddenly remembered about Wednesday night. She cleared her throat before saying, “Tarzan, are you um, doing anything tomorrow night? Would you like to come over to maybe watch a movie or something?” Getting only an interested stare, she continued. “The movie is called Pirates of the Caribbean and it’s about these pirates, bad men who sail on ships at sea. And you’ll get to see how people fought in the olden days with swords in their hands.”

Tarzan simply nodded and said, “Yes. I will come over.”

Just then they rounded the corner of the street where the precinct was located about half-way down the block from where they were standing. As Sam continued on ahead, Jane stopped walking and so did Tarzan. “Okay, Tarzan. I have to go back to work now. Feel free to hang around if you want, out of sight though please. Oh, and I’ll be home a little before 9 o’clock okay? Feel free to swing by anytime after that,” Jane started chuckling to herself when she pictured Tarzan swinging on a telephone cable up to her bedroom window.

“Okay. Good-bye Jane. See you later,” Tarzan stated, giving Jane one last look before turning to disappear down an alley and up a far-away fire escape to the roof above.


	5. So are you to me

The next day passed quickly for Tarzan and Jane, although each for separate reasons; Tarzan was anticipating his surprise birthday celebration for Jane, and Jane was all revved up about her ‘movie night’ with Tarzan, a very nice way to spend her birthday.

Wednesday afternoon found Tarzan just finishing up his lesson for the day with Liz. “…and that, John, is what a cat looks like, when they’re small like this one, it usually means that they’re domestic cats, and live in houses with people who take care of them and give them food and water, in return for companionship, having a little furry friend, you could say,” Liz finished explaining. Tarzan had told her about the stray cat and the kittens and asked her to explain what more of them looked like.

Tarzan smiled. “Thank you Liz. Now I will know what it is if I see one on the street.”

“Right, and remember, most cats don’t like to be touched unless they already know you. We wouldn’t want you getting into any skirmishes with an alley cat,” Liz chuckled.

“Knock knock,” said a male voice from the doorway. Max poked his head in the door and said, “Is the lesson finished? Does he know everything under the sun yet?” When Liz turned her head in a fashion you might believe would make it spin right off her neck if it wasn’t attached, Max sauntered over to Liz’s seat, bent down and gave her a sweet kiss, not as full of passion like he had on Friday, but still long enough for Tarzan to innocently stare at them until their lips parted.

“Hi. Yes, we just finished! And now John knows all about our furry feline friends. John, how do you spell ‘cat’?”

Tarzan sounded out “c-a-t.”

“That’s great John, you’re going to knock the socks off some woman when you start writing letters, I know it.” Max winked at John. “Which reminds me, how is your surprise for Jane going?”

“It is going well. Aunt Kathleen and I will go to her apartment before she gets home and decorate the living room.” Tarzan answered, smiling in anticipation.

“Hello Max, how are you today? Liz, John.” Kathleen gave a warm smile to the two younger people as she entered the room.

“Hi Kathleen I’m doing great” Max replied.

Kathleen turned toward Tarzan and suggested that he go put on the outfit they had selected from amongst the array of clothing hanging in his father’s closet. Tarzan nodded and padded out of the room.

When he returned, Kathleen told Liz and Max, “He conceded to a crisp, white, long-sleeve button-down shirt, and black slacks that were his father’s, but drew the line at shoes. He is going to tie his hair back in a loose ponytail with a black barrette to complete the look.”

Liz appraised his outfit and thought he looked quite dashing when he was all cleaned-up. Max took a look too, and then offered a suggestion. “You know what would make that ensemble complete? A black, leather jacket.” Max shrugged off his own jacket and handed it to a wary-looking Tarzan. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to take the jacket from Max, it was more of a ‘oh no, not another layer of clothing’ look. “You can give it back to Liz at your lesson on Friday,” Max added.

Seeing Tarzan’s worried look, Kathleen spoke up. “It’s okay John, you don’t have to wear it for the whole night. You can take it off once you and Jane get settled in to eat or something.”

Tarzan perked up at this and said his proper thank-you’s to Max and Liz.

Giving his outfit one more perusal with her eyes, Liz commented, “There, he’s all set to be her knight in…bare feet. Okay, we’re going to get going. Have fun tonight John, and don’t forget, you have to tell me how it goes when I see you on Friday,” Liz called out over her shoulder as she pulled Max out of the room.

“Bye”

“See you later”

Kathleen turned to Tarzan. “Okay, let me call Nikki to make sure the coast is clear and then we’ll head over there and get you set-up for the evening. Sound good? Are you excited?”

Tarzan gave her one of his brilliant smiles, “Yes.”

*****  
{ [Here is a visual to accompany Tarzan’s outfit](http://pics.livejournal.com/mythras_fire/pic/0005h66p/) }

A little before 9 o’clock that evening, Jane was on her way home, and had just rounded the corner to her apartment building when she noticed a handsome young man- dressed in nice, black slacks with a matching black leather jacket- leaning against the concrete staircase. She was still too far away to discern any of the man’s features, but as she approached the staircase, light from the streetlamp let her see that he also had long, blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail. She shamelessly continued her perusal down his body until she reached his…bare…feet. Her shocked eyes shot up to meet Tarzan’s sparkling ones, and she stopped in her tracks in front of the staircase.

“Jane.”

“Tarzan? Wow, um, look at you! Why are you so dressed up? Although I see you haven’t quite grasped the concept of shoes just yet,” she chuckled as she walked up the six concrete steps.

“Aunt Kathleen showed me some of my father’s clothes and Max let me wear his jacket, so I would look nice for you.” Tarzan said truthfully.

“Well that was nice of him, wasn’t it? Are they comfortable? Come on, let’s go up, I’m definitely ready to just relax for a little while and watch Johnny Depp- erm- the pirate movie,” Jane said all in a rush, not really letting Tarzan answer any of her questions. Tarzan just nodded and followed her in after she unlocked the main entrance door.

When they got to her door, Jane picked out her apartment key and turned it in the lock, still talking about how much Tarzan was going to enjoy the movie. She knew she was rambling, but it helped keep her mind on anything but how gorgeous he looked in that leather jacket and, she was almost too ashamed to admit to herself, how turned on she was that he still wasn’t wearing any shoes even in all his fancy attire.

“…and you’ll get to see what pirate booty is and pirate ships and who the famous Will Turner and Captain Jack Sparrow were, although watching Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp is probably a tad bit more exciting for me than it is— ” Jane opened the door right then and just stood there, mouth gaping open. “— for…you.”

‘Whoa, did I walk into the wrong apartment or something?’ she thought to herself as Tarzan walked past her into the kitchen. The small dining area of the apartment was decorated to simulate a romantic setting at some fancy restaurant. There was a red table cloth over the dining table, with two wine glasses standing next to a bottle of Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon. Two tall candles were placed in the center of the table, on either side of a plate of assorted cheeses to be eaten with the wine, and small votive candles were placed randomly all around the room, although unlit.

Tarzan was currently trying to figure out how to light a match to light the candles but gave up when he noticed that Jane was still standing in the hallway, shell-shocked. He put the matches down on the kitchen counter, picked up the bouquet of spring flowers he had picked from Kathleen’s garden, and walked over to Jane, pulling her inside and closing the door to the apartment behind her.

He handed the flowers to her and then said simply, “Happy birthday, Jane.”

Finally regaining her ability to speak, Jane replied, “Thank you, Tarzan. Um, how did you know it was my birthday today? And how did you know how to do all of this?”

“You told Liz last Friday at my lesson. I asked Aunt Kathleen about birthdays, and she and Liz helped me out. Are you happy?” Tarzan asked, stepping closer to Jane so that he was standing directly in front of her. He brushed the back of his hand across her cheek.

Jane took a deep breath and thought about that for a second. Was she happy? ‘Well if being loved by such a pure, true, and real man and deep down, loving him just as much is happiness, then yes, I guess I am,’ she told herself. Pulling herself together, she looked directly in Tarzan’s eyes and said, “Yes, Tarzan, I am happy, happier than I have been in a long time.”

Before Tarzan could react to her affirmation of more or less how she felt about him, she had walked around him and out of his grasp over to the kitchen counter where she set down the flowers and picked up the box of matches. She might be able to tell him she liked being with him, but that didn’t mean she was ready to deal with the physical emotions of being close to Tarzan yet… ‘at least just not this instant,’ she thought.

While Jane was lighting the candles around the room, Tarzan went over to the CD player and pushed the ‘ON’ button where Kathleen had shown him it was, and pressed play to start the first track on the CD she had put in for him earlier. The soft, melodious chords of Eastmountainsouth’s “So Are You to Me” reached Jane’s ears and made her smile. ‘What a perfect song,’ she thought as she finished lighting the tall candles on the table.

As the music at the banquet  
As the wine before the meal  
As the firelight in the night  
So are you to me

Tarzan walked back over to where Jane was standing by the table, and took her hands in his. “Dance with me.”

“Alright. Do you know how to slow dance?” At the shake of Tarzan’s head, Jane added, “That’s okay, it’s very simple. Put your left hand in mine and hold it out like this. Then put your right arm around my waist like this. Now we just sway to the rhythm of the music.”

As the ruby in the setting  
As the fruit upon the tree  
As the wind blows o’er the plain  
So are you to me

Quickly catching on that this was a very intimate kind of dance, Tarzan let go of Jane’s right hand to wrap his left arm around her neck and pull her in flush with his body with his right. “Make a wish,” Tarzan whispered, staring deeply into Jane’s amber eyes, their foreheads touching slightly.

Jane grinned and replied that usually one blew out a candle on a cake after making a wish and she didn’t see one on the table. Tarzan released her to walk into the kitchen and pull something out of the refrigerator. He removed a round chocolate cake from its container, small enough to fit in the palms of his hands, but a couple layers high, and placed it on a round plate. Picking up a single birthday candle that Kathleen had given him to go with the cake, he walked over to the dining table where he lit the candle and walked back to where Jane was standing, love struck.

As the wind blows o’er the plain

Holding the small cake in front of her face where she could blow out the candle, he whispered again, “Make a wish.”

So are you to me

“Don’t have to,” Jane replied simply, gazing into Tarzan’s gorgeous blue eyes. She blew out the candle and put the cake down on the coffee table next to the couch. Turning back around, she reached up to pull out the hair tie securing Tarzan’s ponytail, and his hair came cascading down in beautiful blonde waves.

“Why not?”

“I don’t have to,” she repeated, leaning in ever so slowly towards his luscious red lips, “because it already came true.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * I am writing this based on the fact that Tarzan and Jane shared that first kiss in the so-called ‘unaired pilot’, which is actually the one I saw when the show premiered, so please bare that in mind.
> 
> * Song "So are you to me" by Eastmountainsouth.
> 
> *This was the end of the original fic. I expanded it afterwards until it reached a logical conclusion in chapter 20.


	6. Dinner and a movie

Before Tarzan had a chance to reply, Jane’s lips brushed his softly, and he decided that his answer could wait. He had been waiting for this moment to happen again ever since Jane had kissed him that night in her bedroom several months ago. So this time, he didn’t stand there passively but instead reached up to cup her face with his large hands, intensifying the kiss.

Jane reveled in the emotional release that came with finally expressing her heart-felt emotions for Tarzan. This felt right and she found herself wanting more, so she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him even closer. Little moaning noises escaped as her tongue explored the inner recesses of his mouth.

Tarzan’s hands found their way into her hair and he wove them through her soft, red curls, eliciting more soft moans from Jane. He left her mouth to leave a trail of kisses from her jaw line to her neck, burning the skin where his wet mouth went and hot breath followed.

“Riiiiiiing.”

Tarzan had returned to claim Jane’s mouth when he heard the phone’s distinct ring. He tried to say Jane’s name but didn’t have much luck. “Ja---.” Jane on the other hand, had just discovered the sculpted shoulders underneath the leather jacket Tarzan was still wearing, so she was busy running her nails along the underside of the jacket, trying to peel it off to gain better access to his upper chest and back even as he was kissing her senseless.

“Riiiiiiing.”

“Jane,” Tarzan managed to get out after the second ring, breaking their passionate kiss.

“…what?” Jane opened her eyes and stopped moving her hands, realizing that the kitchen phone was ringing. “Oh, that’s the phone, um, okay, I’ll get it,” she said, pulling her hands out from under his jacket and reluctantly walking over to the kitchen.

“Riiiiiiinn-- Hello? ....um, no, she’s not here right now….yeah, she um, she went to a concert and won’t be back for another few hours…… okay, I’ll tell her you called…okay, bye-bye.”

Jane hung up the phone, still buzzed from her mini make-out session with Tarzan and more than a little annoyed with the apparently thoughtless teenager who just had to call at such an inconvenient time. She turned around and walked over to where Tarzan was now standing at the candlelit table, eating a couple pieces of cheese and unabashedly staring at her with an incredibly sexy glint in his eyes.

“What?” Jane asked, feeling goose bumps break out all over her skin at his unwavering gaze. To distract both of them for a moment, she moved to stand behind Tarzan and gently reached forward, letting him know with her gesture that she wanted to take his jacket off. Tarzan put the remaining piece of cheese in his mouth and then shifted his arms back so she could pull the sleeves off. She pulled them down his muscular arms, letting her hands linger on his biceps a little before sliding them down to his wrists where she pulled the sleeve completely off.

“There, um, that’s better. You um, looked hot, so I thought I’d help you cool down,” Jane tried weakly to explain. She smiled inwardly realizing how funny it was that he was not going to hear any of her double entendres until he learned more about the way people communicate just as much by what they don’t say as by what they do say. Or in this case, by how many meanings one phrase can have.

True to her thoughts, Tarzan just smiled at her, and offered her a piece of cheese, oblivious to the fact that she had just called him hot in more ways than one.

“Thank you. Tarzan, would you like some wine? Have you even had wine before?”

“No. What is it?”

“Well, actually it’s just a bunch of crushed grapes that have been fermented and stored in barrels until it acquires a certain taste.” Upon noticing Tarzan’s blank stare, she said, “Oh yeah, silly me, it’s like grape juice, only it has some alcohol in it, which makes it taste different, and makes you feel different if you drink too much of it. Better?”

“Yes. I like grape juice. Mary gives it to me to drink for breakfast sometimes.”

“Okay, just take a sip and tell me if you like this.” Jane poured a little wine into one of the wine glasses and handed it to Tarzan. He held it far away from his nose upon smelling the wine stronger than any normal person would. Gradually he inched it closer to his face until he could stand the aroma, and took a small sip, looking at Jane out of the corner of his eye as he did so.

“How does it taste?” Jane asked as she poured herself half a glass and took more of a gulp than a sip, still trying to calm her nerves. ‘Maybe if I eat something…’ she thought, looking down at the cheese and then over at the chocolate cake sitting on the coffee table. ‘…oooh yes, cake.’

“Strange. I like my grape juice better.” Tarzan replied after making a face and setting down the glass to grab a few more pieces of cheese to wash away the red wine taste in his mouth.

Jane chuckled and replied that wine was usually something you had to get used to drinking and that he should probably stick to his grape juice for the time being. “Well, since I’m the birthday girl, I say we eat my chocolate cake for dinner and watch ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ Sound good?”

Tarzan’s eyes lit up and he quickly swallowed the last bites of cheese in his mouth. “Yes.” ‘Maybe now Jane will let me hold her when we sit on the couch’ he thought happily to himself, his eyes dancing as Jane grabbed his hand and led him over to the couch where she told him to sit while she put the DVD in and took out the music CD. Jane decided to just eat off of the plate the cake was on, and grabbed a few napkins and two forks before walking back over to the couch.

She set the forks and napkins down and was about to sit down when she realized she had forgotten the milk. Giggling mostly to herself, she said quietly “Got milk?” to which Tarzan replied, “No, don’t you keep it in the refrigerator?” completely missing another social reference.

Now full on laughing, Jane commented, “Man, Tarzan, we’re going to have to get Liz to give you a lesson in social references and slang words, now aren’t we.” She walked back into the kitchen and returned moments later with two coffee mugs full of milk.

These too she set down on the coffee table, and then turned to Tarzan, who was sitting in the middle of the couch with his right arm draped across the back of the pillow next to him, knowing there was nowhere else for her to sit but in his embrace. She took a deep breath, picked up the blanket lying across the arm of the sofa and settled into the crook of Tarzan’s arm, tucking her feet underneath her, placing the blanket around them and starting the movie.

Tarzan was home. There was just no other way to say it. He had more of this wonderful feeling inside him now than he had ever had before in his entire life. Even more than when he was living with Kala, the she-ape that raised him. For her he had felt another kind of feeling, one he knew was like that of a mother towards her son, similar to the way he felt about Kathleen. That feeling was familiar to him too and now that he knew her again and trusted her, it was a welcome feeling. But this feeling that he had for Jane was inexplicable, wondrous, and made him never want to leave her side again, for fear this feeling might go away. Now he knew what his mother must have felt for his father- they had loved each other. The way he knew he loved Jane.

Three and a half hours later Nikki came bounding in the door, still hyped up on soda, pizza and adrenaline, but stopped dead in her tracks at the sight before her. Votive candles were sputtering all around the room, nearly burned out; the two tall candles were dripping wax onto clear plastic holders protecting the red tablecloth. Her attention turned towards the blue screen the TV was emitting, and that’s when she noticed Tarzan and Jane, sound asleep in each others arms, limbs draped all over the couch.

She walked slowly and quietly over to pick up the blanket that had fallen off of Jane and draped it over the two sleeping forms. Jane shifted into Tarzan, who was lying between her and the back of the couch, but didn’t stir, so Nikki just patted her shoulder lightly, turned off the TV and the DVD player and headed off to her room. ‘Boy do I give the perfect birthday present or what,’ she complimented herself as she forewent all manner of pre-bed ritual to fall face first on to her inviting bed.

Out in the living room, Tarzan wrapped an arm around Jane, pulling her in closer to kiss her forehead sweetly. He silently thanked Nikki for replacing the blanket and not waking them up to break his perfect evening with Jane.


	7. You are not dreaming

Jane woke to the sound of someone breathing lightly on her forehead, and the warmth of two strong arms wrapped snugly around her waist; the front side of her body pressed up against that of something akin to warm steel. When she titled her head to look up at Tarzan’s face, she was greeted not by his beautiful blue-green eyes, but by soft, red lips that caressed hers ever so gently. “Wow. These dreams are getting more realistic all the time,” Jane said out loud against Tarzan’s lips, still half-asleep and thinking she was in her bed, alone.

“You are not dreaming,” Tarzan said softly, brushing away a few red curls that had fallen into Jane’s face.

At this Jane opened her eyes fully and leaned back as far as she could in Tarzan’s embrace. Now wide awake, she felt her face flush a deep red as she remembered how they got into this position.

They had watched the movie and Tarzan had enjoyed it thoroughly, asking Jane questions about things the pirates said when he didn’t understand their pirate jargon, and getting into the swordfights, talking about why one person had the advantage over the other by way of the methods they used to fight their opponents. He even picked up a new word, “savvy?” after hearing Johnny Depp say it throughout the movie and getting an explanation from Jane on what it meant.

After that Jane must have fallen asleep on the couch, so warm and cozy snuggled up against Tarzan under the knitted blanket. ‘Wow, I must have been more tired than I thought,’ Jane mused to herself. “Hi,” she finally managed to say.

“Hi,” Tarzan said softly, a smile on his face that reminded Jane of a kid in a candy store.

They laid there staring at each other for a few moments that actually felt more like hours to Jane. And that’s when she realized with a start what day it was, and quickly turned her head to look at the clock on the wall above the TV. It read 7:35 a.m. “Oh no….” she groaned. “Tarzan, you have to let me get up, I have to go get ready for work, and I’m already running late. Sam’s meeting me for breakfast at eight and then we have a ton of stuff to do today.”

“You have to go now?” He looked at her with those big bluish-green puppy-dog eyes even as he lifted his arms and threw off the blanket so she could roll off the couch.

“Yes, I’m sorry Tarzan,” Jane turned around to face him. “Aw, please don’t look at me like that. I can’t think straight with you looking--” she waved her hand over his gorgeous, and unfortunately, fully clothed body on up to his pleading eyes--“like, like that!” Jane finished, rubbing a hand through her hair in a flustered manner.

“So you’ll stay then?” He said hopefully, getting up from the couch to walk over and stand before her, placing his right hand around her neck and rubbing his fingers in small circles, looking deeply into her eyes.

Her skin was on fire. “No…. I…I can’t. Today is Thursday, a workday, and I have to go take a shower and get dressed,” Jane sighed in response. She pulled out of his grasp and turned around, heading for her bedroom. When she felt, rather than heard, Tarzan following her, she stopped, turned back around, and placing her hand on his chest to stop him, said, “No no no. You stay here while I’m in the bathroom. Make yourself some breakfast if you want. I’ll be out in 10 minutes.”

Sticking out his lower lip, he said nothing and turned around, walking back over to pick up the discarded blanket, folded it, and placed it back in its spot on the arm of the sofa.

Jane said good morning to Nikki on her way to her bedroom. Nikki walked out into the living room to find Tarzan tidying up the room, placing things on the kitchen table if he didn’t know where they went. Nikki watched him out of the corner of her eye as she walked into the kitchen to grab the cereal from on top of the fridge and got the milk out from the inside door.

“Hi Nikki,” Tarzan said from over by the window next to the sofa where he was now letting the cool morning breeze blow upon him.

“Good morning John,” Nikki replied. ‘Damn, just my luck that he had to sleep with his shirt on. Why does Jane get to have all the fun?’ she grumbled to herself, pouring milk into her cereal in a bowl from the cupboard, still half-watching Tarzan, who had turned his back to her.

As if on cue, Tarzan reached up, grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled it over his head in that oh-so-manly fashion, setting it down neatly on the arm of the sofa and turning around to face Nikki.

“I’m hot. It is warm this morning,” Tarzan said, scratching his chest with the index and middle fingers of his left hand.

“Yes, you certainly are,” Nikki said under her breath as she stared at Tarzan’s rock-hard abs and pecs, not noticing the milk now spilling all over the kitchen counter, little cereal flakes floating down little white rivers of milk.

The light was streaming in through the window behind him, illuminating him in a sort of ethereal glow, showing off his perfectly toned arms, making his loose blonde hair shimmer like gold.

“Nikki? You’re spilling the milk,” Tarzan said, walking over to the kitchen to tilt Nikki’s hand upright again, breaking her out of her shirtless-Tarzan-induced stupor.

“Wha huh?...Ohhh! Oops, sorry, I mean thank you, I mean- let me just go get a towel to clean this up,” Nikki blubbered, quickly pulling her wrist from his hand to set the milk carton down and race into the bathroom adjacent to her bedroom to find a suitable towel to use. There already were some towels hanging in the kitchen that would have been fine, but Nikki needed to get out of the room for a minute or two while her face returned to a normal color down from fire-engine red.

Tarzan just gave her a puzzled look and placed his hands near the edge of the counter to try and prevent the milk from dripping too much onto the floor.

Jane walked out of her room after Nikki had disappeared into the bathroom, dressed in her customary black jacket, a sky blue stretchy tank top, tucked into her black jeans and gun belt, and her black boots in hand. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, with some of the short, loose curls framing her face.

Looking at the milk all over the counter and the “I didn’t do it” look on Tarzan’s face, Jane asked, “What happened, Tarzan?”

Before Tarzan could respond, Nikki walked hurriedly back into the kitchen with a towel to clean up the mess. “Nothing happened, Jane. I just spilled some milk when I was… making my breakfast.”

“Oh. Okay, well, I’m leaving in a few minutes Nik so I’ll see you this evening, k?” Jane sat down in a chair at the table and pulled on her boots.

“Sure, sounds good. I’ll be home late-ish, so I’ll grab something for dinner k, so you don’t have to make anything for me.”

“Okay.” Jane turned to Tarzan who was now washing the milk off his hands in the sink. “Tarzan, where did your shirt go?” Although she wasn’t complaining- all the muscles in Tarzan’s back were flexing and relaxing as he washed his hands. It was mesmerizing to say the least. Her skin was on fire again, and he was standing five feet away from her.

“I took it off. I was hot.”

At the mention of his being “hot” again, Nikki’s hand sputtered to a stop and then quickly started wiping the towel again for the third and final time over the counter. ‘Man, get a grip, she’s right there! If you start blushing, she’s gonna know somethin’s up and then the “interrogation” will begin,’ Nikki scolded herself.

She quickly wrung out the towel in the sink, careful to avoid brushing against Tarzan’s bare back or hands as he finished rinsing them, and then quietly walked into the laundry room with the towel, throwing a “Have a good day at work” over her shoulder before disappearing into her bedroom.

Frowning slightly at the bedroom door Nikki had just shut, Jane wondered if everything was okay with her sister. “Is she okay? Are you sure nothing happened while I was in the shower?” Jane asked, curious as to what was making Nikki so skittish.

Tarzan simply shrugged and walked over to pull Jane out of the chair she was still sitting in. He put his arms around her waist lightly and asked, “Can I come to breakfast with you and Sam?”

Her hands came to rest on top of his bare shoulders. “Umm, sure, I guess. But we have to go now, so that means you have to let me go so I can get my keys and say good-bye to Nikki.” Jane answered. “Oh, and as much as I wouldn’t mind if you went how you are, I don’t think the restaurant staff would appreciate a shirtless, shoeless man eating in their midst, you know,” she chuckled, thinking of the commotion a shirtless Tarzan would cause to coffee-depraved and sleep-deprived early risers.

Tarzan didn’t budge, waiting for Jane to stop talking. Once she did, he took her face in his hands and gave her the sweetest of kisses on the lips, just long enough for her heart to skip a beat, and then released her to go put on his shirt and open the door to the apartment, ready to go.

Recovering from that moment of bliss that didn’t last nearly long enough, Jane called out to Nikki, her voice cracking a little, “Nikki, we’re leaving. See you later!”

“Bye!” came the muffled reply.

Jane picked up her keys from the side table near the door, and followed Tarzan out into the hall, suddenly very hungry for one of those warm, gooey cinnamon buns with the hot, sticky frosting on top.


	8. Birthday presents

Jane and Tarzan arrived at the sidewalk café only a few minutes after 8 o’clock. The café had a row of tables lining the inner half of the wide sidewalk, shaded by the trees lining the street. Inside were more tables, booths, and a diner-style bar.

Jane stopped when she reached the glass door and put a hand on Tarzan’s arm, drawing his attention away from trying to enter. “Okay, you stay out here while I go inside and get Sam and we’ll sit out here at one of these tables.”

Tarzan looked around at the various tables to his right. People reading the morning paper were scattered around, some were eating, some were just sipping coffee. He spotted a table that was more shaded than the others and silently padded over to sit down. He pulled the chair next to him as close as it would go and waited patiently for Jane to return with Sam.

“Jane.”

Jane turned around from where she was standing facing the bar at the entrance to the café and saw Sam approaching her. “Hi Sam, sorry I’m late, I woke up late….and I brought Tar- John along too because he hasn’t had breakfast yet and asked if he could join us.”

“Oh he came over early today, did he?” Sam smirked.

“Uh, not really, no. He kinda spent the night….on the couch,” Jane added at the look on Sam’s face. She wasn’t about to tell him that she had slept on that very same couch with him though, that he was going to have to get out of her himself.

“Must have been some birthday party. So, where is Monkey Boy anyway?” Sam asked, ignoring the glare Jane sent him, and looked around the café for John.

“He’s outside at a table where I was hoping we could sit, since he still isn’t wearing any shoes.”

“Ahh, okay then. After you.”

While Tarzan waited, he observed the people around him, now constantly aware of the ways of these city folk, eager to learn how to be more like Jane so he could prove to her he could live in a civilized man’s world.

He watched as a man a few years older than him pulled out a chair for the woman accompanying him at a table a few feet away. Then the man pushed her in towards the table and seated himself across from her.

Seeing Jane walk out with Sam a few moments later, Tarzan rose from his chair and pulled out the one next to him and looked expectantly at Jane. Pleasantly surprised, she sat down and allowed Tarzan to push her seat in, and thanked him.

Sam walked around to the other side of the round table and sat down in a chair, adopting a relaxed position with his right arm over the back of the chair next to him, his left ankle resting on the knee of his right leg.

Tarzan sat down in exactly the same position, his right arm across the back of Jane’s chair. Sam didn’t think anything of it until he switched legs after a few minutes of chatting and ordering breakfast- Tarzan had switched legs at the same time. This time Sam switched legs deliberately and watched in amusement as Tarzan copied his move for the third time.

“What is this, ‘monkey see, monkey do’?” Sam asked Jane, who had also seen Tarzan’s copycat actions but was trying to keep it to herself. She snickered and offered the explanation that maybe he was simply putting his lessons in civilized behavior to good use.

Sam was about to make a retort to Jane’s explanation and Tarzan’s “who me?” innocent look when the waiter brought out their food.

Fifteen minutes later Jane licked the last bit of sticky frosting from her fork and looked over at Tarzan finishing off his fruit plate. She smiled at him and he grinned back at her, taking her left hand in his right under the table, but not without Sam noticing the lovey-dovey exchange.

‘And now for my revenge on the birthday present she got me last year,’ Sam thought smugly to himself as he pulled a rectangular-shaped jewelry box the size of his palm out of an inner pocket in his suit jacket and set it on his lap.

“So, how was your birthday yesterday? Did you do anything special?” Sam asked pointedly, glancing at Tarzan and then back to Jane.

“We watched a movie, savvy?” Tarzan piped up, a big grin spreading across his face.

Jane almost choked on the water she was idly sipping and looked up to see Sam looking at her with both eyebrows lifted. “Did he just say what I think he said?” he leaned forward to inquire quietly, still eyeing Tarzan like he’d grown a second head.

Jane cleared her throat and smiled, “Yes. We watched “Pirates of the Caribbean” last night after John surprised me with a candle-lit dinner that was actually more like a dessert since all we ate was that little chocolate cake, huh,” she finished with a smile for Tarzan, remembering how romantic it had been sharing that piece of cake with him sitting so close to her on the floor in front of the couch.

Getting an expectant look in her eye, she turned back to Sam and said with a grin, “So, Sam, where’s my birthday present?”

“What makes you think you’re even getting a present after what you did to me last year- in front of my parents no less!” Sam put on his best offended face, willing Jane to take the bait.

“Oh, come on, Sam! I told you I was sorry like a hundred times already, and you know it was funny; you just don’t want to admit it. I bet you even still have those boxers tucked away for when your special 'lady-friends' come over,” Jane snickered, then started giggling at the gag gift she had bought Sam for his birthday last year.

“What did you do?” Tarzan asked, completely confused, rubbing his thumb over the back of Jane’s hand still held in his own.

“No, no! You’re not going to tell hi-”

Jane turned to face Tarzan, grinning devilishly, “I bought him black boxers that said “I Touch Myself” right across the front in nice, bold, glow-in-the-dark letters.”

“What is ‘glow-in-the-dark’?”

“It’s when something shines so you can see it even though it’s dark like at night. I’ll have to show you some of the glow-in-the-dark stickers that Nikki has in her room later on, you’ll like them, they’re really neat.”

“Okay. And what is wrong with these words on your boxers, Sam?” Tarzan asked, turning to look at Sam who was shaking his head, now really impatient about giving Jane her “gift”.

“Nothing, John, forget it. Maybe later on Jane can explain that to you in much more detail than I want to know about….. Here Jane, it so happens that I did get you a birthday present and rather nice one at that I must say,” he said with a totally straight face and handed her the rectangular jewelry box.

Jane took the box and Tarzan immediately bent forward next to her left shoulder to see what she got.

“Oh, Sam! You didn’t have to do this, this looks really-- ” Jane stopped mid-sentence when she opened the jewelry box to reveal something very lacy and very, very pink.

Tarzan pulled it out of the box before Jane could stop him. “What is this?” he asked, looking at the pink-lace teddy with his head bent to one side. “And why is there a big hole right here in the front at the bottom?” He poked his finger through the ‘hole’ in the pink-lace crotch-less panties that matched the top and then looked over at Jane.

“--really, horrible. You’re horrible, you know that?” Jane glared at Sam, her face the reddest he had seen it in a long time. She ignored Tarzan’s questions for the moment to continue her death-glare onslaught at Sam, trying to make him shrivel up right there on the spot, but having no luck.

Sam just laughed out loud, still shaking his head, but this time in triumph that he got her, and he got her good. He silently thanked John for being there to make his revenge that much sweeter as he got up to go pay for their meal inside, and then head off to the precinct.

“Have fun explaining that to Monkey Boy there, and um, maybe you might actually make a whole show of it. You know, put on the teddy, play the song and then explain why those boxers say ‘I Touch Myself’… See ya at work, partner,” Sam grinned and walked off, leaving a fuming-blushing-flustered Jane in his wake, and an oblivious Tarzan, still running his hands over the lace of the teddy and sniffing it occasionally.


	9. Payback's a well, you know...

“Here’s your coffee, Jane.”

Silence.

“Jane…Jane…yo Jane,” Sam repeated, holding out a steaming black mug of Columbian coffee to Jane who was seated at her desk, blatantly ignoring him.

Finally Jane turned her steely gaze at Sam and took the mug from him, then returned to her computer screen, muttering a ‘thank you’ so low Sam almost didn’t hear it.

Now that the satisfaction of his revenge had been sated, Sam tried to get her to lighten up and speak to him again by making her laugh. He took his seat at his desk across from hers and began, “You know, if you think about it, you lucked out on the amount of embarrassment caused by my gag gift to you. Besides me, you only had John there and the poor boy didn’t even know what it was for, and if you don’t ever tell him, then you’re off the hook. But I was not so lucky, you know. I know you heard what my parents had to say when I pulled those boxers out of the box on my birthday. But what you didn’t hear were the 500 times my relatives burst into song singing the chorus to that song whenever I went to any family functions for the next few months. Trust me, if I never hear that song again, it will be too soon. Not to mention that my hearing will probably never be the same- my family is _definitely_ not gifted in the singing department and now I wouldn’t be surprised if I started going tone-deaf."

Sam watched as Jane tried to keep a straight face as she stared at nothing in particular on her screen. She finally burst into a laughing fit, trying to cover it up with her hand but failing miserably. People at the filing cabinet along the wall near her desk gave her curious looks before turning back to their work.

Realizing he had only said that to get her to stop ignoring him, she gave him the benefit of the doubt and replied in a mock-angry tone, “Fine, but it took me five minutes just to get the lingerie from John's clutches and get him out of the café, and then he kept asking me what it was for, and why I didn’t like it, and what those stupid words on your boxers meant. I am sooo not looking forward to going home tonight,” Jane finished, shaking her head slightly while looking for a few files hidden somewhere on her desk.

“Yes you are, I bet you can’t wait to get home but I’m gonna stop right there, cuz I don’ wanna hear nothin’ about what you plan to do with that nightie and I better not see you in it neither. I don’t wanna die in the line of duty because the image of my partner in a teddy was making my brain malfunction. No offense or anything.”

Jane blushed a little but chuckled just the same, “None taken. I wouldn’t want to be the cause of your demise. I’ll leave that to those ‘magical boxers’ of yours and the unfortunate woman who happens to see you in them. When they’re glowing.” She couldn’t help one last jab at him before nodding over Sam’s shoulder to where the Captain was signaling for everyone’s attention.

“Listen up, people. Okay, this is where we are on the illegal ammo ring case. We’ve brought in some witnesses and a few informants for questioning and their stories have confirmed our suspicions that the Bronx gang is indeed making a move on distributing their killer ammo to the gangs farther up-town. There haven’t been any shootings using hollow-point bullets as of yet, and no sightings, at least during the day, so I think we’ve still got some time to stop the cycle before it gets a chance to fully start around here.” The Captain looked at Jane and Sam, “I want Porter and Sullivan on stakeout outside the warehouse the informant, uh, the one you guys interviewed--”

“Larry,” Jane volunteered.

“Right, outside the warehouse Larry the informant told you was where they were meeting at night. I want to know who’s coming and who’s going and so on. Torres, you’re going to outfit them with all the proper gear. Okay, the rest of you, continue working on whatever leads and angles you’ve got going now. If we work hard and stay tough, we’ll stay on top of this one and nip it in the bud. K, back to work.” The Captain gestured to Jane and Sam, “Porter, Sullivan, my office please.”

Inside the Captain’s office, Jane whispered to Sam in a taunting manner before the Captain spoke, “Ha ha, now I don’t have to go home. Just long enough to drop by and change my clothes. So there.”

“Riiiiight, because there’s no way that he’ll be able to track you down and seek you out at our stakeout to ask you all those burning questions of his. Good thinking partner, you really got him there,” Sam just oozed sarcasm but the smile on his face told Jane that he was just messing with her. She elbowed him quickly before the Captain turned around to address them from where he had been pulling the blinds to the outer work-room.

“So, you guys up for a little stakeout this evening? As I’m sure you’re well aware, it’s imperative that you remain hidden and on alert the entire time. We just need confirmation that this is where the reps from the Bronx gang are meeting up with the reps from the gangs around here.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me, Sir. It’s been a while since we were on stakeout, but we’re still sharp.” Sam answered the captain.

“Good, because you may be doing it more often in the coming weeks. Okay, just wanted to check that everything was clear, you can go now.”

The captain tapped Jane on the shoulder on her way out the door after Sam. He drew her back in a few steps to ask quietly, “How is the Clayton kid? Have you seen him, told him that it’s not a good idea to go sniffing around in police business, especially now that these hollow-point bullets are out there somewhere?”

Jane responded quietly, “He’s doing fine, Sir. Kath- Ms. Clayton set him up with a tutor and he sees her three times a week. He still comes around, but don’t worry, Sir, I will tell him the next time I see him about staying away from anyone who looks questionable. He’s not randomly violent, but he will defend anyone he thinks is in danger and I don’t want him tangling with gang members any more than you do.” Jane was a little touched that her captain would still be thinking about Tarzan in such a caring way. He really was an understanding chief of police, one under which she felt proud to serve.

“Good, I don’t want to see any more harm to come to him, or you for that matter, from any of these new threats to our precinct. He’s a nice kid, an innocent kid- that much was obvious when I saw him at the trial. Okay, thank you, that will be all.”

Jane nodded and walked back out to her desk, torn between her warring inner emotions. She wanted to tell Tarzan about the dangerous situation with the gangs and the bullets so he would know of the possible danger, but she also wanted to keep him out of the loop so he wouldn’t go charging into any of their strongholds and get himself in trouble because he thought he was helping. She also didn’t want to see him tonight because she knew he was waiting for her to explain the nature of the two gag gifts but then she did want to see him tonight because, well, she wanted to be with him 24/7 but she was trying to take it slow, and not rush into anything too soon.

What she was afraid of rushing into she didn’t know, but she did know that these feelings for Tarzan were scaring her half to death and at the same time making her feel more alive than she had felt in her entire life. ‘I need a mental vacation,’ she lamented to herself as she picked up a stack of papers to be filed away in the filing cabinet along the wall. She joked to herself about a hypothetical outcome of her current emotional state: ‘Cause of death: brain and heart hemorrhage caused by emotional overload.’


	10. Stakeout

Jane and Sam reached their stakeout position on the roof of a building across the street from an old, abandoned warehouse serving as the gangs’ meeting place, around 11 o’clock that night in the rundown part of town. The lack of many street lights was both an advantage and a hindrance to their work. The advantage being that there was less ambient light to give away movement coming from unusual places, like rooftops. The hindrance being that they had to resort to using night-vision binoculars, which didn’t provide as much clarity as regular binoculars. But they were better than nothing, Jane figured.

She had managed to get in and out of her apartment with a change of all-black clothing without running into Tarzan so she hoped that maybe he was occupied with something at Kathleen’s that would keep him there for at least another hour or two. She had left a note for Nikki on her bedroom door that she was working late with Sam and that she wouldn’t be back till early in the morning.

Sam finished unpacking their gear from the black duffel bag they had brought with them and claimed a spot overlooking the warehouse from which to stakeout the reps who were supposedly meeting in an hour, according to Larry’s info.

Jane looked over at where Sam was lying on his stomach looking through binoculars and almost didn’t see him because he blended so well into the dark night with his dark skin and even darker clothing. Then a voice in her head told her that even though it was hard to see him, one could still smell the scent of his aftershave if they were trained for such things, thus more or less giving away his position. Jane herself could only smell it if she was standing right next to Sam, but that was what triggered that thought to occur.

As soon as that thought finished running through her mind, Jane had to stop what she was doing when she realized where that seemingly normal thought had come from. ‘Wow, I guess Tarzan’s natural instincts have been more influential on me than I thought. A few months ago I would have never considered that a man’s aftershave could give away his position, except of course if he reeked of a certain smell, but still…’ She shook her head smiling, marveling at the effect of his presence in her life, and crouched down next to Sam, settling in for what would be hours of staring at inanimate objects until the gang reps started to arrive.

*****

Tarzan swung up to the windowsill of Jane’s bedroom window a little after 11 o’clock, expecting to see her there if not to hear her beautiful voice drifting in from the living room. He had many questions for her that she still had not answered and he was beginning to wonder if she wanted to answer them at all. He had tried asking Aunt Kathleen what a ‘teddy’ was, as he had heard Sam call it, and had mentioned the mysterious hole in the front of the pink silk cloth, but she had just turned red like Jane did a lot and suggested that he ask Jane for an explanation, and that she was going to bed now, and bid him goodnight.

So he silently dropped to the floor inside her bedroom and sniffed the air for the lovely jasmine scent that was Jane’s alone, but did not smell any lingering scent of her. He could tell she had been here in the past hour but only briefly, and apparently neither she nor Nikki were home right now. He walked out into the hallway lit only by the night light plugged into the outlet at the base of the wall, and was about to enter the living room when he noticed the piece of paper stuck to Nikki’s door.

He walked up to it and examined it in the dim light, only able to read some of the shorter words. What he managed to discern from Jane’s note- as he knew it was her handwriting from seeing her write down things enough times at home and when she helped him practice his own handwriting- was that she was at ‘work’ with ‘Sam’ and something about the ‘morning’.

‘I guess she’s out doing more police work with Sam somewhere,’ Tarzan thought to himself as he padded back out to her bedroom window. Jumping up to the windowsill he took one last look around the room and was about to leave when he noticed something shiny and silky lying in a heap on her dresser across from the window. He jumped back down and walked over to it, smiling when he picked it up to run his fingers over the soft material. It was the teddy. Tarzan decided to take it with him so that Jane could answer his questions as soon as he could find her. With the lingerie tucked into one of the pockets of his cargo pants he hopped back up to and out of the window. He began his descent to the ground, only to scale another fire escape across the alley to begin his journey towards wherever Jane might be at the moment, her jasmine scent leading the way.

*****

“Jane, pass me the flashlight, would you, I need to see what’s crawling over the back of my leg before I smash it to pieces,” Sam whispered to Jane, who was lying to the right of Sam and had the red-light flashlight lying on the other side of her on the ground. She grimaced and handed him the flashlight.

He turned it on and used the left hand tucked under his chest to direct the red beam down his right leg at the same time that he shifted a little so that he could use his right hand to lift a pad of notepaper to squash…..the thick leaf that was caught on a snag of his black camouflage pants, waving in the brisk breeze blowing over the top of the building.

Jane sniggered into her hands, trying hard not to laugh out loud. Sam reached down and tore the leaf from the snag, crumpled it up in contempt and returned the flashlight to Jane, who turned it off and set it back down in between them. “Well, at least you’re following the captain’s orders, Sam, staying alert at all times,” Jane teased him, then went back to scanning the street for more thugs.

Two had already entered the warehouse and it was nearing midnight, so Jane figured the rest would be showing up soon. Who knew gangs were so prompt? A few minutes later, she spotted another one and motioned Sam to look where she was looking.

She saw a man walking, swaggering was more like it, down the street towards the warehouse on the same side of the street as Jane and Sam’s building. He crossed the street diagonally towards the warehouse door and that was when Jane got her best look at him.

He wasn’t overly tall, probably less than 6 feet she surmised, although from her vantage point it was a little hard to tell depth well. He was muscular and wore a hooded sweatshirt with no sleeves; baggy dark pants and what looked like army boots. Jane figured the black shapes on his arms were tattoos, which went together with the ratty looking, short, dark dreads he was sporting on top of his head.

Jane wouldn’t have given him any more thought after taking down the necessary basic description of his appearance for the captain, but something about the man made Jane strain to see him more clearly through the green hue of the night-vision binoculars. When the man stepped under the nearest street light after reaching the other side of the street, Jane caught a glimpse of his face and thought she was seeing things. Putting aside the punk clothing and the nappy hair and tattoos, she could have sworn she saw Max Evans’ handsome face on that man’s body as he entered the building and out of her sight.

“But that can’t be right,” Jane said quietly to herself out loud. What would a gorgeous guy like him be doing with thugs like these? She had to be seeing things, otherwise there could be some serious problems in store for Jane and the whole precinct if Max knew who she was and was in cahoots with these ammo-smuggling gangs. “Max is Liz’s husband, right?” She asked herself.

“Yes.”

Jane whipped her head to the right where the voice had come from and was both excited and agitated that Tarzan was all of a sudden lying right next to her on the ground, as if he had been there the whole time. “Tarzan! What are you doing here?!” Jane exclaimed in a whisper as Sam lifted his head to look over Jane’s body at Tarzan.

“Dude, if we had bet on this, I’d be collecting from you big time right now,” Sam smirked as he laid back down and scooted a little ways over to his left to give them as much privacy as the small stakeout area they’d arranged would allow. He resumed the watch of the front door as Tarzan replied to Jane.

“I came to see you. Why do you want to know if Max is Liz’s husband?” Tarzan asked plainly.

“What? Oh, it’s nothing, really.” Jane said quickly, trying to dismiss the topic. “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here Tarzan, we’re on a stakeout. Why don’t you go back and I’ll meet you at my apartment later?”

“No. I want to help.” He said quietly, his beautiful blue-green eyes looking a little hurt. She was pushing him away again. She didn’t want him near her, didn’t want his help.

Jane realized with a sickening feeling in her gut that the only way she might be able to get him to leave and not go down to meddle in their stakeout was if she hurt his feelings now by telling him she didn’t want him near her. It had ‘worked’ a few times in the past but it had never been intentional and she had felt bad enough then. This time would be a thousand times worse because she was purposefully doing it even if it was for his own good.

But there was more at stake here than just her feelings or his and she knew that their cover couldn’t be blown right now or they’d lose the element of surprise concerning the ammo ring’s actions and then who knows what would happen. Jane just couldn’t risk that happening and felt that her job must come before her personal feelings in a case like this.

So with a hardness to her voice that didn’t reach her eyes, she said, “You can’t be here, Tarzan. This is police business and very dangerous. I know you want to help but this isn’t the time or the place. I will answer any questions you have about anything that happened today, but later on at home, okay?”

Tarzan studied her face and her eyes for a long moment, pain evident on his face at her rejection of his offer to help, but since he always could read her real emotions by looking in her dark brown eyes, he saw the pain there at having to say those hurtful words and he knew she didn’t really mean them. It still stung that he couldn’t stay and be with her, but he was learning more and more what it meant to live with others and what compromises came from sharing your life with someone else.

So he rose silently and with one last look, he moved off stealthily into the night the way he had come, back to the apartment to wait for Jane to return.


	11. If the lingerie fits...

Two hours later Jane trudged in through the door to her apartment and leaned heavily upon it when she had safely closed it and turned the locks. What a night. She was completely drained, physically and emotionally. Stakeouts were more stressful on a cop than the public might think, and the added inner turmoil for the way she felt about Tarzan wasn’t helping much.

She closed her eyes, rubbed them sleepily, took a deep breath, and pushed off the door to walk into her bedroom to take a shower and climb into her oh-so-inviting bed, having completely forgotten that Tarzan might still be there, waiting for her to return.

*****

Tarzan, who had indeed been waiting in her bedroom for the last two hours since arriving back from his rooftop trek home, was perched on the windowsill leaning against the frame, his left arm hanging out in the breeze, his right placed across his lap. He had spent the whole time just thinking about what it meant to Jane to be in control of the situation, especially when it came to her work as a police detective. Tarzan realized that when she was with him, she was rarely in control, especially when they were outside. She always seemed to be caught a little off-guard when around him, like his very presence threw her off balance a little for some unknown reason. And the recent romantic step forward in their relationship hadn’t helped to alleviate matters the way he had hoped they would.

Tarzan decided that he would try to give some of that control back to Jane, starting with respecting her wishes that he play a more spectator role in her duties as a detective, only helping her when she asked for it, for he knew she would not hesitate to do this when the time came.

Just then the forgotten, wadded-up ball of lingerie in his left side-pocket of the cargo pants was blown loose by the wind, but Tarzan reached out with his lightning-fast reflexes and grabbed the pink silk before it could be blown away into the night. Staring at the puzzling piece of material in the moonlight, a plan started to formulate in Tarzan’s mind. ‘Jane needs to relax. She has been too uptight and upset lately, and all I want is for her to be happy.’

Even as he jumped down from the windowsill to spread the lingerie out on Jane’s bed where she would see it, he could smell her lovely jasmine scent wafting up to the window from the street, signaling her arrival home. He padded silently back to the windowsill to wait for her to enter the bedroom and then he would put his plan into action.

*****

Jane walked into her bedroom in the dark, not bothering to turn on the light with the silvery-blue light of the full moon shining through the open window. She took the gun out of the holster and set it down on the–– wait a second. Open window? The cool night breeze that had been flowing through the room stopped momentarily and when she turned around to face the window, she already knew who she would see there.

Tarzan perched himself on the windowsill in a crouch, the moonlight silhouetting his muscular frame so that Jane could not see his face but he could see hers. “Jane,” he said softly, no hint of pain in his voice.

“Tarzan, about earlier I––” Jane started but then lost the words she wanted to express.

Tarzan hopped off the windowsill and walked up to stroke Jane’s cheek gently before saying, “It’s okay. I understand why you said those things. I just want to help you.”

Jane leaned into his touch, sighed, and then she spoke. “I know you do, and I appreciate that, I really do, it would just be better, safer, if you helped me with other matters, okay?” She sincerely hoped he would understand what she meant about staying away from police business. This “civilized” world was just still too new for him and she wouldn’t be able to bear it if something happened to him because she wasn’t carefully watching over him.

“Other matters, like making you happy?” Tarzan asked, tugging on her chin so that she would look into his eyes.

“Um, yeah, I guess so.” Jane said tentatively, not exactly liking the mischievous gleam in Tarzan’s eyes. ‘Uh-oh,’ she thought to herself. ‘He’s up to something, I can feel it.’

Tarzan abruptly let go of her chin to stride over to the bed where he picked up the now slightly-wrinkled, but still very, very pink, very, very lacy lingerie set and walked back to where she was standing.

“What is this?” Tarzan asked without preamble, holding the lingerie up for Jane to see as if she would be able to tell him if it was thrust in front of her face.

“Oh, that thing. Again.” Jane muttered to herself under her breath, ‘Why didn’t I chuck that on my way out for the stakeout? Crap.’

“What is it?” He repeated.

“This… is called lingerie, Tarzan. That pretty much means ‘fancy underwear’ in French.” Well, actually what did she know, the only other words she could remember from her high school French classes were _Bon voyage_ and _Parlez-vous Français?_ “Women typically wear lingerie to look and feel sexy for their partners––”

“Their mates,” Tarzan interjected.

“Yes, their mates,” she continued. “Sometimes they even wear them to work because it makes them feel good about themselves and some can be relatively comfortable.”

Jane sincerely hoped that Tarzan wasn’t as interested as he seemed to be, as he looked from the teddy to Jane and back to the teddy, almost as though he was trying to visualize it on her. Too late she realized that that was exactly what he was thinking when he asked her to please put it on.

She was about to protest, but the mixture of curiosity, desire, and mischief in his blue-green eyes stopped her objection cold in her throat. She tried to swallow the imaginary lump in her throat and took the teddy out of his hands. “Okay, fine, but I’m not putting on the bottoms, got it? And the top is coming off as soon as you’ve seen what it looks like on me.” At the devious grin from Tarzan, Jane realized her blunder and stuttered to add, “I mean, I’m going to put on a big ol’ T-shirt instead!” With her face now sufficiently red, she turned towards the bathroom and marched right in, almost slamming the door behind her.


	12. All you do seduces me

**Chapter 12**

Jane slowly opened the bathroom door and poked her head out. She saw Tarzan sitting on her bed leaning back on his hands, watching her intently and curiously. ‘So long as he stays over there this should be okay, and then I can put on my night shirt and put this thing where it belongs, in the bottom drawer under my winter turtlenecks,’ Jane reassured herself, referring to the pink lingerie. She opened the door all the way and walked out into the room to stand about six feet away from the bed.

 _“Seduces Me” by Celine Dion  
Everything you are  
Everything you'll be  
Touches the current of love  
So deep in me  
Every sigh in the night  
Every tear that you cry  
Seduces me_

Tarzan slowly looked her up and down, studying her. The silvery glow of the moonlight played along her porcelain skin, lighting it up and making him want to feel it under his fingers as he had so very briefly done the night before. But he remembered his plan to let Jane be more in control, and schooled himself to stay seated on the bed, although it was becoming increasingly hard to do so, for a number of reasons. 

But then he noticed how much skin showed through the lace in the nightie, and he remembered touching the area of her skin where her shirt was unbuttoned at the top and bottom the night they met. So soft. And warm. And inviting.

_All that I am  
All that I'll be  
Means nothing at all  
If you can't be with me  
Your most innocent kiss  
Or your sweetest caress  
Seduces me_

By this time Jane was becoming very uncomfortable under Tarzan’s heated gaze. He was just sitting there unabashedly staring at her chest, scoping out the rest of her body, and then returning to her chest. She had to clear her throat before asking, “So, this is what it looks like on, satisfied?” She wanted to cross her arms across her stomach, but that would just make it worse and so she put her hands on her hips instead and waited for an answer.

Tarzan’s answer was to get up off the bed and stalk towards Jane, his blue-green eyes now fastened to her brown ones, till he was standing toe to toe with her. His plan to give her all the control went right out the window, but he would still stop whenever she asked him to, that he had no trouble remembering. 

_I don't care about tomorrow  
I've given up on yesterday  
Here and now is all that matters  
Right here with you is where I'll stay_

“Not yet…” Tarzan whispered in her ear before leaning back to look at the lace top lying softly across her skin. He raised a hand to her right breast and gently ran over it with the back of his fingers, very curious to explore this previously hidden part of her body.

Jane involuntarily sucked in a breath and closed her eyes at the feather-light touch of his fingers across the lace. The analytical part of her brain was screaming at her to put some distance between the two of them, and better yet, put a normal shirt back on; but Jane no longer heard it or anything else but the increasing rate of her own breathing when Tarzan raised his other hand to her left breast and discovered its nipple under a rose in the lace pattern.

_Everything in this world  
Every voice in the night  
Every little thing of beauty  
Comes shining through in your eyes  
And all that is you becomes part of me too  
'Cause all you do seduces me_

Tarzan marveled at the nipple he had just discovered under the lace of the top. It was now rigid and pink; with little goosebumps on the surrounding skin following everywhere his touch went. He looked up at Jane to gauge her reaction to this discovery, but her eyes were closed, her head was titled back, and her breath was becoming more and more shallow with every caress.

He took that as a good sign, and began to explore the rest of her body, one hand slowly blazing a trail down her taut stomach, watching the little fuzz stand on end, while another traced the outline of the lace teddy, until the straps curved around her shoulder near the hollow of her neck. Then it was just too tempting not to place a kiss on her collarbone and leave a trail of scorching open-mouthed kisses up the side of her neck and along her jawbone until he reached his prized destination, her sweet lips.

_And if I should die tomorrow  
I'd go down with a smile on my face  
I thank God I've ever known you  
I fall down on my knees  
For all the love we've made_

Jane could not handle just standing there passively any longer and threw her arms around his neck, crushing her body to his, passionately returning his kiss. Her hands wove their way through his soft, wavy hair, tugging on it slightly.

Tarzan’s tongue sought entrance to her mouth, and was welcomed immediately. He made himself at home, exploring every crevice of her mouth, reveling in the sweet ecstasy of the moment. His hands wandered downward, drawing lazy circles on her lower back, eliciting more goosebumps and even a couple of light jerks from Jane when he found some ticklish spots, until he reached the waistline of her jeans. There he traced the juncture of where her skin disappeared beneath the jeans but before he could dip his hands below the waistline, Jane captured his hands and intertwined her hands with his, holding them out to each side so that she could plunder his mouth without too many other distractions.

_Everything in this world  
Every voice in the night  
Every little thing of beauty  
Comes shining through in your eyes  
And all that is you becomes part of me too  
'Cause all you do seduces me_

Tarzan began to back peddle towards where he knew the bed to be behind him, not letting any space come between them in the process. Jane let go of his hands to grab the hem of his T-shirt and hastily pulled it up and over his head, tossing it wantonly behind her on the floor. The backs of Tarzan’s knees hit the edge of the bed and he suddenly whirled around, taking Jane with him, and then gently pushed her backwards until she scooted up towards the headboard, all the while, never taking her half-lidded eyes from his beautiful face.

He crawled up onto the bed and a low growl that almost sounded like a purr escaped his luscious, red lips. Jane was positively humming and she was about to just pull him up the rest of the way, and let him prowl around her body later, when this huge yawn escaped her mouth, making her stretch and cover her mouth with one hand at the same time.

_I don't care about tomorrow  
I've given up on yesterday  
Here and now is all that matters  
Right here with you is where I'll stay_

Tarzan continued his slow ascent up her prone body, but when he reached her lips, he greeted them with a sweet, fully-loving kiss, not the passionate one he had been on the verge of bestowing upon her swollen red lips a few moments before.

Jane grinned into his kiss, and when he lifted his head a few inches, she apologized. “Sorry, I forgot how tired I was. So, are you satisfied _now_?”

“No. But you need to rest. You are tired.” Tarzan lifted himself off her body and jumped off the bed. Jane immediately missed his body heat when a cold draft of air from the window swirled around her in his wake. But he was back in a matter of seconds, and handed her the long night-shirt she had placed in the bathroom. Then he pulled out the cover and blankets and lifted and settled her under them after she had slipped the shirt over her head.

_Every sigh in the night  
Every tear that you cry  
Seduces me seduces me  
All that you do……Seduces me_

He turned to collect his discarded shirt and exit through the still-open window. Jane sat up and quickly said, “Tarzan, wait!” He turned back to look at her and she asked, “Stay with me?”

In reply Tarzan tossed the shirt down at the end of the bed and slid in at the top where Jane was holding the covers up for him. She turned on her side away from him and he moved to lay right behind her, with his right arm draped across her stomach. Jane smiled to herself in the dark and went blissfully to sleep; Tarzan’s steady breathing lulling her into sweet dreams.


	13. The best way to wake up. Ever.

Tarzan stirred later that morning and to his pleasant surprise found Jane still wrapped up in his arms, sleeping soundly. Her body was cupped in his, facing away from him so that he had but to lean forward slightly to immerse his face and hands in her beautiful auburn curls.

He grinned involuntarily and leaned forward to inhale deeply while weaving his right hand through to the end of Jane’s hair. He kept stroking her hair until he felt her stir slightly and her breathe quicken just the slightest bit.

Tarzan was interested to see what it would take to wake Jane up through touch alone. So he propped his head in his left hand, so that he hovered over her body, and with his right he began drawing lazy circles on Jane’s stomach. Her night shirt had risen up during their sleep, and Tarzan fingered the lace where it met the silk on the teddy directly below her breasts.

For this Tarzan received a sigh from Jane but she did not stir more than to shift slightly forward, into his touch. Unable to resist kissing her any longer, he continued his ministrations on her stomach and leaned down to sprinkle feather-light kisses along her neck.

Jane’s body stiffened and her breathing became erratic, yet she didn’t awaken completely, though Tarzan could tell it wouldn’t take much more. ‘She must have really been tired last night to sleep this deeply,’ he mused to himself. He didn’t know how much longer he could stand teasing her like this before his natural instincts took over and he woke her up in a slightly more _obvious_ way.

Even as Tarzan thought this, a small growl echoed from his throat and vibrated against the skin on the lower back portion of Jane’s neck. Jane’s eyes shot open at not only hearing, but also feeling Tarzan surround her. She consciously shifted backward into his body and tilted her head back to let him know that she was indeed awake- wide awake.

“Good morning,” Tarzan said softly into her hair before tilting her chin a little farther to the right so he could claim a sweet, passion-filled kiss that mirrored the love he felt so much in his strongly beating heart.

“Good…morning….to you…..too,” Jane managed to string out in between Tarzan’s hungry kisses.

Tarzan’s luscious red lips spread into that gorgeous grin of his, aquamarine gems sparkling mischievously at Jane from under long, brown lashes. He pulled his left hand out from under his head so he could rest his head on Jane’s pillow, mere inches from her face. He started stroking the hair near her forehead, brushing it away from her face while simply gazing at her radiant brown eyes.

They lay like this for a few minutes, which to Jane felt like hours. Ultimately, that thought led her to wonder what time it really was, and she reached out to stroke the strands of hair that had fallen across Tarzan’s face.

“Tarzan, do you know how to tell the time?” she asked softly.

“Yes.”

“Could you turn around and look at the alarm clock on my nightstand please?”

Tarzan rolled over, but only far enough for him to see out the window and not the nightstand. “It’s almost noon,” he said when he had returned to place his head on the pillow beside her.

“How do you know, you only looked out…the…window,” her mouth fell open a little in shock. He leaned forward eagerly to cover her mouth with his.

“Yes.”

Jane rose up on one arm to look over Tarzan’s bare shoulder, and sure enough, the alarm clock read 11:50 a.m. in red, digital numbers. She fell back against the bed, onto her back and on top of Tarzan’s left arm, which he had snuck out when she had raised her head.

“Wow,” was all she could say. “You never cease to amaze me, do you,” she grinned and made a move to roll away from Tarzan and out of bed to get up for the day.

But she didn’t get very far because Tarzan’s strategically placed arms on her stomach and around the back of her shoulders tightened their grasp gently, but firmly, preventing any more movement.

“No.”

She turned around to look at him. “No, what?”

“Don’t go.”

As Tarzan said that, he looked in her eyes with the most adorable pair of puppy-dog eyes Jane had ever seen, ever. She ran through a checklist in her head about what she needed to do today and when her report to Captain O’Connor was due.

Tarzan could tell she was making another one of her lists in her head, and decided to go back to nibbling her neck.

Jane’s brain short-circuited as soon as she felt his hot breath on her neck and those tantalizing lips caress her skin, sending shivers all up and down her spine. She attempted to finish the last coherent thought she had left, and then answered Tarzan.

“Okay, um…I have to…have to um…I have to go into work this after….afternoon. At 2 o’clock…To give O’Connor my….report.” Jane could no longer think straight enough to speak, and just inclined her head slightly away from Tarzan’s lips to give him better access to her flushed neck.

“Good,” was all Tarzan said, and his lips began drifting over to her collar bone and upwards along her jaw line till he reached her panting lips once again.

Jane was just starting to think that she was _never_ going to make it to work today, let alone out of the bed, when she thought she heard the distant sound of Nikki’s voice. Through the sensual haze it came, calling out her name, “Jane! I’m home. I left a message for you on the answering machine since I decided to stay over at Laney’s house at the last second.”

Nikki set her keys and wallet down on the table next to the door where she had seen Jane’s keys when she walked in and headed to her bedroom to see where Jane was.

“Jane?” The voice was growing nearer and suddenly Jane broke out of her Tarzan-induced stupor to push on his shoulders, letting him know she wanted him to stop. He did and glared at the door with mixed looks of menace and reluctant acceptance of who was on the other side and the inevitability of that door being opened and ruining his perfect morning.

Jane quickly got up and tugged down her cotton night shirt before walking to the door to stop Nikki’s entrance into the room.

“Hey, Nik. Are you just getting home? I thought you were just going to the movies with Laney?”

“Oh, we did! And it was great. You _have_ to go see “Troy” Jane, Brad Pitt is just omg! I mean, wow! They weren’t kidding when they said Achilles was like a Greek God. And oh! Don't even get me started on how hot Orlando Bloom looked and that other guy too, Eric Bana! Laney told me he's an Aussie, how cool is that?! Anyways, after that, we went back to her house and she let me stay the night since it was really late by that time so, yeah.” Nikki stopped to take a breath and noticed Jane in her pj’s. “Wait a sec, you’re just getting up?”

“Yeah, I got in really late last night. Had to do a stakeout with Sam. I’m going into work in a little bit, are you going to be here or do you have class today?” Jane asked, conveniently leaving out the part about Tarzan driving her nearly senseless with his sweet seduction, and willing him to stay in her room for the next minute or two.

“Nopes, I don’t have class today actually. That’s why it was so much fun last night with Laney because I didn’t have to worry about sleeping through another, I mean, any classes today.” Nikki grinned sheepishly, and ended up yawning. She said, “I’m going to chill in my room for a little while, so let me know when you leave k, and I’ll see you later on.”

“Okay kid. I’m going to take a shower and get ready now.”

Jane slipped back into her room and looked around for Tarzan, not seeing him on the bed where she left him. She whispered, “Tarzan?” as she walked further into the room.

He stepped out from behind where the door had been opened and snuck up behind her...


	14. Can't hurry love

Tarzan crept silently up behind Jane; his arms outstretched, he swiftly started to tickle her in the spots on her lower back that he had discovered last night. Jane gave a little yelp at the surprise attack and then tried to bend out of his reach, but was not successful. 

So she tried to turn around for a counter-attack but Tarzan was too quick for her and suddenly encircled her waist with his strong arms and picked her up off the ground. She squealed for him to put her down, but he just walked over to the bed where he unceremoniously dropped her on top of the sheets in the middle of the bed, a totally devious look shining in his beautiful eyes.

Jane was laughing and giggling like crazy now, having the time of her life and at the same time worrying that Nikki would hear her and come in wondering why she was laughing hysterically all by herself. But then she heard strains of the rock music blaring from across the hall and her fears were assuaged. She successfully rolled away from Tarzan when he jumped onto the bed on all fours, but didn’t manage to make it off the bed in time. He caught her by the leg and slowly crawled up her back side, his body flush with her overheated one. Jane was on her stomach and so she stuck her head straight down into the mattress, like an ostrich trying to make itself invisible to enemies by hiding its head in the sand, but still giggling like crazy. Tarzan reached her ear and whispered in mock innocence, “Why are you laughing so much, Jane? All I did was touch you here…and here…and here.” Every time Tarzan said “here” he tickled her in one of the many ticklish spots on her body. 

Jane squirmed underneath him to try and get free, but that only served to arouse both of them more. She lifted her head off the bed to tell him that he was crushing her and that she couldn’t breathe. He immediately stopped and rolled over to the right side to give her some air. Jane quickly rolled to her left at the same time and thus avoided his last-second grasp for her and got off the bed to stand halfway across the room, closer to the bathroom, and stuck her tongue out at him. 

“Ha-hah! Fooled ya didn’t I?” She grinned, proud of herself. Tarzan shook his head and rolled off the other end of the bed. He stood up, his head bent forward and down slightly like the lion stalking his prey, his ruffled hair falling into his face, making Jane shiver all over. Tarzan slowly stalked toward her and she realized too late that he had effortlessly managed to corner her; the only direction in which she could retreat was the bathroom. ‘Well that’s okay, I have to take a shower anyway,’ she said to herself. Although, she didn’t know how she was going to get that done with the way Tarzan was watching her every move, intent on not letting her go anywhere out of his reach just yet.

“Okay! Well, this has been wonderful, great fun, but um, I have to take a shower now and get dressed for work, so why don’t you um, go out into the living room and maybe make yourself some breakfast, and I’ll just be a minute…just a few minutes, um, yeah,” Jane stammered. 

‘Dang it, I’m sounding like a love-struck puppy again, can’t even form intelligent sentences. He really needs to stop staring at me like that. That’s soooo not helping’ Jane whined to herself, as Tarzan continued to stare her down as he walked slowly toward her, steering her into the bathroom, until they were both inside, and he shut the door behind him.

Tarzan walked over to the bathtub and turned the knob to let the water warm up and Jane thought he was just doing it for her but when he turned around and began untying the string holding his dark cargo pants on, Jane reached out and put a hand over his. Tarzan looked up.

“And just what do you think you’re doing?” She asked with a slight grin on her face that she was only half-heartedly trying to conceal.

“Taking a shower. This water is warmer than the waterfall. Are you coming in?”

Jane stood there, her mouth opening and closing but no sound coming out. “Um, no, why don’t you go ahead. I’m going to gather some clothes to wear and then I’ll take mine after you’re done,” she finally said, not really meeting his eyes, hoping he wasn’t going to just throw her in there with him. It’s not like she didn’t want him to, because she definitely wanted him to, just not right now. She knew what would happen if she got in that shower with him. But she wanted it to be perfect, at a time when they wouldn’t be interrupted by anything or anyone. Not when she had to leave for work in less than an hour and Nikki was right across the hall in her room, rock music blaring or not.

Tarzan could see the indecision on Jane’s face and knew instinctively that she hadn’t refused his offer, only postponed it. That, he could live with. “Okay. I won’t take long.”

Jane nodded, still not looking him straight in the eye, and turned to leave the bathroom. Tarzan reached out an arm to cup her chin and pull her around to face him. He leaned down to place a sweet kiss on her lips, deepening it a little when he felt her respond. After a few blissful seconds he released her and she smiled at him, one of those brilliant smiles of hers that just lit up his heart, and slipped out the door.

Tarzan smiled to himself, and turned around to pull the knob up to re-direct the water to the shower head. He finished untying the string on his pants and slipped out of them, placing them neatly on the toilet seat, and stepped into the warm spray.

Once outside in her bedroom, Jane heaved a big sigh and rubbed her hands down over her face in exasperation. Who knew it could be this hard to love someone? It had never been this hard with Michael. But then maybe that meant that she hadn’t been as in love with him as she thought she had been. No, this time it was much different. She loved Tarzan in many more ways and much deeper than she had ever loved Michael. There were just so many facets to Tarzan, so many wonderful, un-biased, uncorrupted and beautifully wild ways about him that Jane knew without a doubt were many reasons why she admired and loved him so much.

Jane felt much better now and went to her dresser to pick out her clothes for the day, and to wait for Tarzan to get out of the shower. With any luck, maybe he’d come out in just a towel. That would definitely be a nice way to go off to work, she mused devilishly to herself. With that in mind she picked out an outfit and went to lounge on the bed for a few minutes awaiting her towel-clad Adonis. 

_Can’t Hurry Love~ covered by the Dixie Chicks_

_I need love, love to ease my mind  
I need to find, find someone to call mine  
But mama said_

_Chorus:  
You can't hurry love  
No, you'll just have to wait  
She said love don't come easy  
It's a game of give and take  
I can't hurry love   
No you'll just have to wait  
You gotta just give it time  
No matter how long it takes_

_But how many heartaches must I stand  
Before I find someone to let me live again  
Right now the only thing   
That keeps me hangin' on  
When i feel my strength  
Yeah it's almost gone i remember mama said_

_Chorus:  
You can't hurry love  
No, you'll just have to wait  
She said love don't come easy  
It's a game of give and take  
Now why must I wait  
How much more can I take  
Before loneliness   
Will cause my heart, heart to break_

_No I can't bear to live my life alone  
I grow impatient for a love to call my own  
But when I feel that I  
I can't go on  
These precious words keep me hangin' on  
I remember mama said_

_Chorus:  
You can't hurry love  
No, you'll just have to wait  
She said love don't come easy  
It's a game of give and take  
I can't hurry love   
No you'll just have to wait  
She said just give it time  
No matter how long it takes_

_GOTTA WAIT!_

_No love, love don't come easy  
But I keep on waitin'  
Anticipatin' for that soft voice  
To talk to me at night  
For some tender arms  
To hold me tight  
I keep waitin (ooo)  
Keep on waitin'  
But it ain't easy yeah  
It ain't easy  
But mama said_

_Chorus:  
You can't hurry love  
No, you'll just have to wait  
She said love don't come easy  
It's a game of give and take  
I can't hurry love   
No you'll just have to wait  
You gotta just give it time  
No matter how long it takes_


	15. A lesson in patience

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I have absolutely zil knowledge of where the boroughs are located in relation to each other and to Manhattan, so please excuse any grievous geographical faux pas. (And huey, you were asleep when I wrote this part otherwise I would have definitely asked you hehe).

Tarzan watched as Jane slipped out of the bathroom a little mesmerized. He really wished she didn’t have to be at war with her emotions so much all the time. He knew she was happy with where they were going in this new part of their relationship, but didn’t understand why she had to make everything more complicated that it needed to be.

He stepped forward into the spray, and had to bend down a little to accommodate the lowered shower head. He let the warm water just run over his long hair and down his contoured back, the water forming little rivulets that ran in zigzag patterns down his tanned skin. Tarzan turned around in the spray, almost behind it up against the faucet, and let it run over and down the front of his face and stomach as he tipped his head back to shampoo his hair with the bottle he found sitting on Jane’s shower rack. Now he was going to have part of Jane’s wonderful scent with him all day, he thought with a smile. He washed the rest of his body with the little fluffy white body scrub that he had curiously picked up from where it hung on the end of the shower rack. 

Tarzan stepped out of the shower a minute later to grab a towel with which to dry off when he noticed that there weren’t any towels in the bathroom. Why wouldn’t there be any towels, he asked himself, but then proceeded to pull his pants back on wet and go out to get dried off the natural way. He opened up the door to let the steam out and walked out into the bedroom where Jane was lounging around on the bed, apparently just laying there waiting for him to finish his shower. 

“All done.”

Jane lifted her head from the bedspread and had to discreetly suck in a gasp. He wasn’t in a towel, but he was dripping wet, little water drops running down his washboard abs into the low-riding top of his cargo pants; his hair hanging in little clingy tendrils in front of his face; his locket glimmering around his neck. In a flash, Jane’s thoughts returned to the night when she had interrupted him showering in the waterfall as her eyes roamed down his sinuous body, then back up to his glowing aquamarine eyes.

“Okay, thanks. I’ll just go take mine now, why don’t you um, get something to eat and then I can drop you off at Kathleen’s on my way to work.” Jane surprised herself at how calm she sounded. 

Tarzan smiled and padded out of the bedroom into the living room. Jane watched him leave as she crossed over to the bathroom door and nearly walked into the wall next to the door because of it. ‘What a day this is going to be,’ she muttered to herself as she shut the bathroom door and stepped into the bathtub.

*****

“The Captain wants to hear our report now, partner. You ready?” Sam asked Jane as she was walking back to her desk with a fresh cup of coffee.

“Sure, let me grab my notes.”

Sam and Jane walked into Captain O’Connor’s office and he shut the door behind them. He began without preamble. “So, what did you find out.”

Sam and Jane looked at each other to see who wanted to speak first and Jane nodded to Sam, so he began by telling the captain what the scene looked like when they arrived and how long it took before people started showing up.

“…then about five minutes or so to midnight, a few of the reps started showing up and by 12:10 the last one entered the warehouse. They were in there for around an hour, right Jane, and then they started trickling back out. Never more than three or four left at any one time.” Sam finished talking and turned to his partner to add her part.

Looking down at her field notes, Jane confirmed, “Yeah, it was an hour and fifteen minutes and the last one, which incidentally had also been the first one to arrive, left at 1:30. The street lamps helped us ID most of them for only general purposes of how much clothing they were wearing. The yellow light made it difficult to tell what colors they were wearing, but we were able to get some detailed info on some of the guys who stood under the lights for a few minutes talking to each other before scattering away into the surrounding alleys…” She added almost as an afterthought, “and that one guy...”

“What guy?” O’Connor asked.

“Hmm? Oh, no one. Just a guy with some tattoos on his arms. I think. They looked more like black blobs in the dark through the binoculars. Had a peculiar gate is all.” Jane mumbled as she stared with un-focused eyes at a point on the floor near Sam’s shoes a few feet away.

Sam leaned closer to Jane to quietly ask, “You okay, partner?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night- this morning, I mean, but I’ll be fine. My cup of coffee is waiting for me back at my desk.” She tried to smile reassuringly at Sam. He didn’t look like he was exactly falling for it.

The captain spoke up. “So you didn’t see anything out of the ordinary? Did anyone carry anything into the warehouse with them?”

Sam spoke up before Jane had a chance to. “No, we um, didn’t see anything out of the ordinary,” he glanced quickly at Jane before continuing, thinking about John’s unexpected little visit. “As far as we could tell, they were in there for the whole time, and none of them came with anything big enough to hold any rounds of ammo or guns.”

“Okay, that sounds good for us actually.” The captain responded. “Hopefully that means they’re still in the planning and negotiating stage. No need for showcasing the goods just yet. That should buy us some time but it won’t be much, so we’ve got to stay on top of this, as I’m sure I’ve said before and will say again. Thank you for your reports; you can go back to work now.”

Jane and Sam nodded their thanks, and went back to their cross-facing desks to get started on the pile of paperwork awaiting them on other cases.

*****  
“Good afternoon, John.” Liz said in greeting as John walked into his old bedroom an hour after Jane had dropped him off at home.

“Good afternoon, Liz.” John replied. He took up his usual place on the floor in front of the bed and waited for Liz to start speaking.

“Oh, before I forget, do you have Max’s jacket?” Liz chuckled. “He actually forgot you had it and last night was searching high and low for it until I reminded him you had borrowed it.”

John rose silently to his feet in that effortlessly graceful manner of his, nodded once, and padded out of the room. He returned a minute later with the leather jacket and handed it to Liz, who thanked him and placed it over the back of her chair.

“Okay, now that that’s taken care of, let’s get started, shall we? K, today we’re going to learn about professions- what people do for a living. Like, Kathleen runs a magazine, among many other businesses. I am a scientist; I work with really small living creatures, usually in a lab. Max is a pediatrician, and that means he works with kids and helps them get better when they’re sick,” Liz explained. She purposefully didn’t mention Jane or her profession to see if John would ask on his own. As she was happy to see, he piped right up with “Jane works for the police,” a big smile on his face, as soon as Liz had finished speaking.

“Exactly. Would you like to learn more about police work, or rather, detective work? I think that’s what she told me she was.” Liz paused and held an index finger up to her lips, tapping her fingers against them as she tried to remember.

“Yes. Jane is a detective. So is Sam.” John supplied.

“Right thanks. So, what do you already know about the police? Besides the whole ‘them-going-after-you-and-trying-to-lock-you-up-for-a-crime-you-didn’t-commit thing.’ Liz looked nervously at John as he scowled at the mention of cops like Gene who had hunted him for weeks. She heard a low growl, but then was relieved to see his countenance change back to a more thoughtful expression as he apparently thought of Jane, because the next words out of his mouth were, “Jane hunts bad men that don’t follow her rules. But it’s very dangerous and she won’t let me help her,” John said with a frown.

“That’s because she probably doesn’t want you to get hurt in the process, John. Don’t worry, she’s been trained to fight criminals sort of like how you probably trained yourself how to deal with the large predators of the jungle, right? She can take care of herself.”

“Not always.” John now had his arms crossed over his chest and was pouting, even though he probably had no idea that that’s what he was doing.

“What do you mean?” Liz asked, perplexed.

“She got shot by that…” he paused, looking for that word Jane had used that one time. “…that sniper, but that special shirt saved her.” John looked down at the ground, and said softly, “I don’t want her to get hurt. I want to help. So I guess I will have to help her from the shadows again…”

Before Liz could ask John what he meant by that last statement, Kathleen walked into the room to inquire how the lesson was going. Liz explained that they were just talking about professions and John bluntly changed the subject from Jane to Kathleen, asking her what his parents had done while they were alive…


	16. Appearances can be deceiving

Jane pulled her car up to the front of Kathleen’s massive apartment building later that afternoon. ‘More like an apartment block,’ she thought to herself with a wry grin. 

She should still be at work right now, but both Sam and the Captain had taken Jane’s spacing out to think about that man that bore such a remarkable resemblance to Max Evans, for being tired and worn out from the stakeout and the few previous days at work, so they had nagged her to go home and get some rest and come back in the morning when she would have a fresh outlook for the day.

And speak of the devil- there was Max’s beautiful black Porsche also parked in front of the building. ‘He must be here to pick up Liz,’ Jane mused to herself as she strode up the steps to the polished, wooden double doors and rang the door bell.

Mary answered the door in very short order and ushered her in with a warm smile and comment that Ms. Clayton was in the parlor with Mr. and Mrs. Evans. Jane thanked her and walked into the room to join the other three people.

“Jane, what a nice surprise! Are you here to see John?” At Jane’s nod, Kathleen gestured with her hand and continued. “Please, come and sit if you’d like. I know he’ll still be a few minutes. He was working furiously on a puzzle Liz gave him to solve at the end of his lesson and he wouldn’t budge from it when we said we were leaving the room, so I imagine he won’t come down till he finishes it. That stubborn streak is definitely from his father’s side, I have no doubt,” she finished with a chuckle.

Jane had an all-knowing smile on her face as she thought of the other times when John could be very stubborn, but she didn’t think his aunt needed or necessarily wanted to know about those particular episodes so she just sat down and greeted Max and Liz, who were seated quite snugly in the smallish loveseat at one end of the long L-shaped sofa.

Jane had just settled herself into the seat half-way between the Evanses and Kathleen when she spotted an artfully displayed tattoo across the muscular left bicep of Max’s arm that was wrapped around Liz’s shoulders. His tight, black t-shirt had ridden up and most of the tattoo was visible below it. Jane couldn’t help but stare at it in disbelief. That was right around the same place that that man had had his tattoo, and it was even the same size and shape, although she could plainly see what the design was on Max’s arm, and on the man it had just been a dark patch.

Max and Liz, having seen Jane pointedly staring at his arm, both looked at her, then his arm, then back at her, and Max asked, “What? Do I have something on my arm?”

That broke Jane out of her daze and she quickly apologized and asked what the design meant, and that it was very unique-looking. Max explained that the design was something that his sister Isabel and he had drawn a lot when they were kids and so held a lot of sentimental value. The design looked almost [alien](http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/83/artifact1.gif) in nature, and Jane couldn’t even begin to decipher what it might represent.

“So tell me Mr. Evans-” 

“Max, please.” 

“-Okay, Max, I don’t think I’ve heard what you do for a living?”

“I’m a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital here in Manhattan, but I also work with a non-profit outreach program that sets up free clinics in some of the boroughs for the folks who can’t afford proper health care for their children.”

“So you go into the Bronx sometimes then?” Jane had slipped into interrogation mode without even realizing it. ‘Well, have to find out one way or another how and if he fits in with that man I saw,’ Jane reasoned.

“Yes, we do, sometimes. We also go to Brooklyn and other neighborhoods surrounding the area, setting up clinics wherever there is available space and people willing to come and see us. Some are afraid of doctors, so those we have to coax in with food and blankets.”

“That’s really great, Max. Do you set aside anywhere a place for sick kids to be treated?” Kathleen spoke up for the first time since Jane had sat down.

“Yes, but not overnight. These are only daytime clinics. We usually get down there an hour or two after sunrise and pack up around sunset. We’ll hold a clinic in the same place for two or three days straight, and then move on to another neighborhood the next week. So we run about three or four clinics a month during the months when kids are most likely to catch contagious colds and then once or twice a month during the rest of the year.”

“So you’re not usually down there after dark, then?” Jane inquired.

“Not...usually, no. Everyone has gone off to seek shelter or go home.”

“Wow, that must be tough being down there all day long and then having pack everything up to leave just to come back the next day and set up again. Do you actually use old abandoned buildings or do you have a tent that you put up for the clinic out on the sidewalk or in vacant lots?”

// _K, why is she asking so many questions about my job all of a sudden?_ // Max asked Liz through their telepathic connection.

// _I don’t know, honey, she’s a detective, and maybe they have a hard time turning off the questioning tactics when they’re not on duty.//_

_//Well don’t you think they’re a little on the weird side? I mean, really. First the orb tattoo and now my job, it’s like she’s trying to pinpoint me as someone from somewhere._ // 

Max was still wary around the cops most days. He had had enough run-ins with the Badge over the last ten years and didn’t desire to have any more tangles with them any time soon.

Liz tried to comfort her husband. // _Oh, stop, I’m sure it’s nothing. Besides, Jane’s a friend of Kathleen’s and is seeing John, I betcha anything, so I’m sure she’s just curious._ //

Max didn’t feel so sure, but he didn’t press it. Jane and Kathleen were waiting for him to answer Jane’s last question. 

Max stuttered. Something he hadn’t done in a long time. Something he only did in the presence of the police. “Well, um, it de-depends on the location, really. Like in the, in the Bronx, we use an old abandoned warehouse in the midst of an old industrial park. Lots of people live close to that block, so we…we find it pretty convenient. But in other boroughs, like Brooklyn, we set up tents in these large vacant lots that are um, spread around.”

“That’s so great that you do that Max, thanks for telling me about it.” Jane sat back and let Kathleen take over the conversation as she mulled over Max’s responses to her guided questions. ‘He often works in the Bronx and though he’s not at work after dark, he is still there and could probably hang back or drive over to the warehouse instead of out of the borough. But he must have another car because that Porsche wouldn’t last five minutes down there.’ She thought. ‘But that still doesn’t explain why a pediatrician of all things, would be in cahoots with an ammo smuggling ring.’

Jane didn’t have any more time to think about it because John had just descended the front staircase and entered the room, finished puzzle in hand.

John came in without a sound and smiling brightly, placed the hard cardboard backing on the coffee table in the center of the room. It was one of those child’s puzzles, for 10-12-year-olds, with the hard backing and the puzzle pieces that fit into the grooves in the backing. It was a country puzzle of Africa.

Jane smiled up at him as he walked directly over to where she was seated and sat as close to her as he could. Jane was learning that “resistance was futile” as the old Borg saying went on “Star Trek,” and truthfully, after the last few days, she welcomed the comforting warmth that John seemed to radiate through every pore in his body.

Liz watched with a sweet smile on her face as John subtly snaked his arm around the back of the sofa to rest behind Jane’s shoulders, just like the way Max’s arm was wrapped snugly around Liz.

She nudged Max with her mind to look over at John and Jane. // _See, what did I tell you. They do look quite cute together don’t they?_ //

Max tilted his head down a little to the left and kissed Liz lightly on the head before replying, // _They look like we did after our trip to the desert that one night._ //

Liz smiled in silent reply.


	17. Something's wrong...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> // // denotes telepathic connection

They all talked for another 10 minutes before Liz noticed the time on the grandfather clock standing stoically in the corner of the room. It was nearing 6:30 p.m. When a break in the conversation appeared, Liz spoke up.

“John, Jane, Max and I were about to go out for a little dinner tonight-,”

// _No we weren’t,_ // Max said quickly, an uneasy look on his face. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to have dinner with John and Jane; he was just a little edgy still after her seemingly random introspective questions about his work.

“-nothing fancy,” Liz continued over Max’s protestation in her mind. “And we’d love for you two to join us.”

// _No we wouldn’t,_ // Max complained again. In response, Liz just placed her right hand on his left thigh and rubbed it lightly while looking into his sweet, brown eyes.

“Right Max?” Liz asked sweetly, but Max heard the tone in her voice that made it clear it wasn’t really a question but a statement.

“Um, right, of course. And you too, Kathleen, are welcome to join us,” Max added, looking to Kathleen hoping she’d say yes. But she smiled as she shook her head slightly, dashing Max’s hopes at making it more than a double date.

“I’d really love to Max, but I have a previous engagement for this evening,” she checked her silver wristwatch, “that I must go prepare for now, actually. But you kids have fun and Liz I’ll see you next week for John’s lesson.” After saying her goodbyes to Jane and goodnight to John, Kathleen left the two young couples in the parlor and headed upstairs to her room.

Jane readily agreed; relaxed about her blossoming relationship with Tarzan to the point where she no longer had a problem being seen with him in public in a romantic way, she knew he would endeavor to control his wild instincts as much as possible unless her safety was at stake. Then God have mercy on the poor soul who would see her harmed.

Tarzan followed Jane upstairs where she freshened up in one of the guest bedrooms. He stole a few kisses from her while they were in the adjacent bathroom and she managed to steal one back before they re-joined Max and Liz on their way out to dinner.

*****

He watched them walk out the front door of Kathleen’s apartment building and into the dark-haired man’s black Porsche. His lip curled into an ugly sneer as he watched Clayton put his arm around Porter to keep her close to him in the rapidly cooling twilight.

To both his shock and an instant later, his indifference, he noticed the Clayton kid stop at the side of the flashy automobile to sniff the air and look around him as if John smelled, sensed his presence nearby. The dark-haired woman told him he could get into the car now, so he took one last whiff and hopped over the door and into the back seat next to Porter.

‘No matter,’ he said to himself, a malevolent glint in his eye. ‘Even his jungle strength isn’t going to protect him this time.’

*****

Dinner turned out to be rather delightful, Max conceded to himself as he held the door open for his wife, Jane, and John to pass through and out into the windy night. They had driven to Little Italy to eat at one of Max and Liz’s favorite Italian places, _Luna’s Restaurant._

Liz had picked this particular type of cuisine so that John might have an easier time choosing something to eat that he would be able to handle with his hands while at the same time still be able to practice improving his table manners. So John had shared a whole cheese pizza with Jane, and Max and Liz had ordered their usual meals of lasagna and spaghetti marinara.

The conversation during dinner had been lighthearted and interesting and had not included anymore investigative questions from Jane, much to Max’s relief and Liz’s mental chiding about his being a little too paranoid sometimes.

As Max walked out to where the car was parked along the curb in front of the restaurant, Liz hugged him close, trying to escape the chilled wind that was now blowing quite steadily down the lamp-lit street.

“Man, when did it get so cold?” Jane wondered aloud to no one in particular as Tarzan rubbed his hands up and down her arms after they got into the backseat of the Porsche.

“I know, I don’t remember it being this cold last night at 8 o’clock,” Liz replied. “Honey, could you put up the cover on the car before we go, please?” she addressed Max.

“Sure, babe, just let me turn the car on first so I can use the switch.”

“Thank you.” Liz leaned over and gave Max a quick peck on the cheek, turned around in her seat and was about to say something to Jane when Jane’s cell phone started ringing.

Jane almost hadn’t heard it against the roar of the engine as the sports car roared to life and Max started unrolling the convertible cover electronically. Tarzan of course, had heard it on the first ring and had bent over her purse to see where the ringing was coming from.

At the same moment that Jane found the phone in her purse, Tarzan stiffened noticeably in his seat and started sniffing the air with a furrowed brow, as if he had caught wind of something he didn’t like. Tarzan took one more deep breath of the wind still passing through the partly open part of the car and a growl started low in his throat as he began scanning rooftops and alleyways alike from his seat.

“Tarzan, what is it?” Jane asked quietly as she opened the phone to say hello.

“Something’s wrong.” 

Jane gave him a worried look as she finally answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Say goodbye to your lover boy.” A sinister but strangely familiar voice cackled right before the line went dead.

“Wait, what are you talking about, who is this?” Jane said in a slightly panicked voice. But it was too late; the man had already hung up. Jane looked at Tarzan as the realization dawned on her what the man had meant just as Tarzan pinpointed what scent he had picked up.

What happened next seemed like a blur to Jane and at the same time passed by as if in slow motion. Jane heard the all-too-familiar sound of a high-powered rifle shooting out two rounds in quick succession--straight at their car-- she saw Max turn around to see what was wrong, and saw Tarzan jumping up to cover Jane’s body with his own even as the retractable roof reached the front end of the car and latched.

“Noooooooo!!!” Jane screamed as she realized what he was doing right before the world went dark.


	18. Sitting ducks

Max heard the gunshots a second after Jane did and, reacting instinctively he pulled Liz’s head down towards his chest as he raised his right hand to deflect the incoming bullets. But before he could make a force field of his own, a bright green light flashed around the outside of the Porsche, sparkling with an electric glow, before dissipating seconds later. Max heard the cling-clang of metal as the bullets bounced off the force field and hit the sidewalk next to his car door. He slowly released his grip on Liz’s head and she sat up to look into his eyes, not yet leaving his protective embrace.

// _Thank you, Max_ // Liz sighed with relief. Though she hadn’t seen it, she recognized from personal experience the distinct crackling sound, like static being shaken out of a wool blanket, and had assumed that Max had used one of his powers to protect them all. But Max shook his head.

// _That wasn’t me.//_

_//What do you mean?//_

_//I didn’t make that force field.//_

_//But that’s impossible, no one else has that power. Just you…and…//_

_//Zan._ //

***

Jane waited for Tarzan’s lifeless body to slump over hers, for the realization that the man she loved might be mortally wounded and she had done nothing to try and save him. But that moment never came and a few seconds later, Tarzan lifted himself off of Jane and put his hands around her neck and into her hair, drawing her to him as he hugged her in relief.

Jane looked around her and saw Liz and Max recovering too, their eyes locked together, almost as though they were pointedly staring at one another. Then a moment later, Max broke his gaze with his wife, and cut the engine. He looked back at Tarzan and Jane and asked if they were alright.

Jane answered, “Yes, I think so. What was that crackling sound I just heard a minute ago?”

“Nothing.” Max and Liz said in unison, a little too quickly for Jane’s liking. “I mean, all I heard was the sound of a rifle and then Max pulled me down to protect me from the shots, and then nothing,” Liz added.

Tarzan craned his neck to check out the unmarred retractable roof fabric, “Where are the bullet holes?”  
Jane looked up with him and reached out a hand to slide her hand along the area above her head where she assumed the bullets would have been blasting through. 

“Jane.”

“What is it Ta- John?” Jane pulled her hand back down and looked at Tarzan.

“Gene was here.”

When Tarzan said his name, a light bulb went on in Jane’s head as to who had called her on her cell phone right before the shooting started. “Oh my gosh, that’s who called me right before we heard the gunshots!” Jane started looking out the small side windows of the Porsche and then out through the back window. “He must be the one who was shooting at us; he hung up right before we heard the rifle fire. I need to go after him, I need to-- ”

“No. He’s gone now.” Tarzan interrupted her with a hand on her arm.

“How do you know?” Max asked, perplexed.

“His scent. It no longer blows this way on the wind.” Tarzan replied simply.

“Well I still need to get out to see what was damaged by the bullets that somehow managed to miss us completely,” Jane reasoned, and Max got out of his seat so she could push it forward to exit the car. Once out on the sidewalk, Jane muttered to herself, “I didn’t think Taylor was that bad a shot, but jeez, he didn’t even hit the car.”

She had barely walked a few steps forward when she accidentally kicked one of the bullets with her boot. She bent down to look at them and was about to get back up again to find a bag to put them in and something to use to pick them up, when she realized that the bullets had hollow-points, the same ones being transported through the illegal ammo ring… and they were completely unmarred. The only way to tell that they had been fired by the rifle was the hammer mark on the blunt ends of the bullets, otherwise they were in perfect condition, something that was impossible given the immediate surroundings of metal, brick, concrete, and asphalt, all objects that would distort the shape of a fired bullet.

“K, that is too weird,” Jane said to herself as she stood up once more, turned back to the car and reached for her purse. She found a tissue and picked her cell phone up off the floor where she had dropped it during the shooting. Tarzan was walking around scoping out nearby alley entrances and scanning the rooftops. Max and Liz were still sitting in the car, watching Jane and looking a little worried, preoccupied it seemed.

“What is?” Tarzan stopped wandering around to walk back to look at what Jane had picked up off the sidewalk. Jane held out her hand and unfolded the tissue to reveal the bullets.

“There’s nothing wrong with these bullets, they should have been shot into the ground or the side of a building at least, but it’s almost like they were never fired,” Jane explained.

“That’s bad?”

“Well, it’s kind of creepy is what it is… no, it’s not necessarily bad, hopefully there’ll be some fingerprints on them that the Forensics Lab can analyze.

“I need to call Sam first thing tomorrow morning and get these bullets bagged and tagged and sent off for fingerprints, and then find out if anyone knows where Taylor has been the last few weeks,” Jane said as she climbed back into the Porsche after Tarzan and took her seat behind the driver’s side.

Jane looked up front to Liz and put her hand on Liz’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry you two got caught up in that, Liz. I’m glad neither one of you was hurt, but I’m afraid Sam’s going to need to take your statements concerning tonight, down at the station.” 

“It’s ok, Jane, you’re a detective, your job can be dangerous at times, but we’re not going to hold that against you,” Liz said warmly, placing her other hand on top of Jane’s and squeezing gently, trying to assuage her guilt.

“Thank you. Do you think you two could come by the precinct tomorrow morning?”

“Sure, no problem,” Max replied as he started the engine for the second time.

Jane sat back and fastened her seatbelt. Immediately she felt a warm, strong arm reach around her shoulders to pull her into Tarzan’s embrace. She started to relax a little as he quietly rubbed his hand up and down her arm in a soothing motion.

They arrived back in Jane’s neighborhood faster than she realized, and after getting out and thanking Max and Liz as well as apologizing one more time, the Evans left Tarzan and Jane at the bottom of the stairs outside her apartment and drove off towards their own.

“You shouldn’t be alone tonight.” Tarzan said seriously, staring down into Jane’s amber eyes.

“Me? It was you he was shooting at.”

“How do you know?” When he didn’t get a response, Tarzan asked, “What did he say to you on that phone?”

“Um, nothing…nothing important. Come on, I guess neither one of us should be alone tonight in case Taylor realizes that he missed his targets earlier. I’ll call Kathleen and let her know you’re staying here.” Jane ushered Tarzan up the steps and unlocked the front door with her key before following him inside and up to her apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any major lapses in police procedure or protocol there, I don't know that much about it even though I like to watch some police dramas on TV.


	19. Show me your face tonight

Twenty minutes later Max and Liz pulled into their parking space and got out of the car to go up to their apartment on the third floor of the affluent apartment complex. Liz unlocked the door, stepped inside, and then relocked it after Max had walked through. They both headed for the bedroom and got ready for bed. 

Liz turned on the radio on the headboard over the bed as they went about their nightly routine. The station she turned to was in the middle of playing Sheryl Crow’s “I Shall Believe”, and Liz cranked up the volume so Max could hear it over the splash of water in the bathroom sink as he brushed his teeth.

_Open the door  
And show me your face tonight  
I know it's true  
No one heals me like you  
And you hold the key_

“Max, they’re playing our song on the radio!” Liz exclaimed with a grin as she walked up behind him in the bathroom and sneaked her hands around his back to clasp around his waist. She began nibbling on his neck but had to stop when he almost choked on the toothpaste that was still in his mouth. She let go of him so he could rinse out his mouth and then ran back into the bedroom giggling at the devilish smile he gave her in the mirror as he dried off his face with a towel.

_Never again  
Would I turn away from you  
I'm so heavy tonight  
But your love is alright  
And I do believe_

Max followed Liz back into the bedroom, his light-amber eyes darkening with intent as he watched his beautiful wife turn down the sheets and climb in, looking oh-so-inviting. As Max passed the bedroom door, the light switch on the wall turned itself off, leaving them in semi-darkness, with only the light from the moon and the ambient light of the streetlights below to illuminate the room.

_That not everything is gonna be the way  
You think it ought to be  
It seems like every time I try to make it right  
It all comes down on me  
Please say honestly  
You won't give up on me  
And I shall believe  
I shall believe_

“You know, I don’t know what it is,” Max said in a husky voice as he climbed into bed, never breaking eye contact with Liz, whose breathing was coming out a bit more shallow than normal, “but every time our lives are in jeopardy it makes me want you more than usual.” He moved to lie on top of her, with his lips near her ear as he nuzzled her neck. “Which is saying a lot considering that I want you every minute… of every day…” Max said in between nips to her impossibly soft, warm skin.

_and I shall believe  
I shall believe  
I shall believe  
I shall believe  
I shall believe…._

Liz was barely able to vocalize a response, but did manage to moan out an “mmmhmmm” as she ran her hands all over his broad, bare, muscled back, pressing him into her, putting as many places on his body in direct contact with hers under the bed sheet.

Max left a trail of searing kisses from behind her ear along her jaw line and up to her mouth where Liz kissed him back in earnest, her tongue darting out to lick at his lower lip, seeking entrance.

As Max and Liz were lost in their passionate embrace, the radio station changed gears and Linkin Park’s “With You” started playing. A few moments later, a shadow crossed over the bed and a dark figure settled on the balcony rail outside the open French doors.

 _I woke up in a dream today  
To the cold of the static and put my cold feet on the floor  
Forgot all about yesterday  
Remembering I'm pretending to be where I'm not anymore  
A little taste of hypocrisy  
And I'm left in the wake of the mistake slow to react  
Even though you're so close to me  
You're still so distant  
And I can't bring you back_

Liz had been moaning Max’s name as he trailed kisses from her chin down the middle of her neck to that hollow spot at the base where her collar bones met as his hands explored her breasts and her trim stomach, but when she opened her eyes for a second and looked toward the balcony, another name escaped her lips, but came out as more of a gasp.

“Zan!”

_It's true the way I feel  
Was promised by your face  
The sound of your voice  
Painted on my memories  
Even if you're not with me  
I'm with you_

Max stopped his ministrations immediately; he propped himself up on his arms, and lifted his head up to look at Liz’s startled and flushed face. “What? Did you just call me Zan?” When Liz said nothing but tried to pull Max back down over her to cover her now naked body, all the while not removing her anxious gaze from the balcony doorway, Max turned his head to the left and looked over his shoulder at the figure standing nonchalantly in the archway, his arms folded over his chest, an amused, if not smug, look on his handsome face.

“Hey, don’ let me in’errupt Duke, looks like you was doin’ pretty good there,” Zan drawled with a sly grin on his face.

_You, now I see, keeping everything inside  
With you  
You, now I see, even when I close my eyes_

“What are you doing here, Zan?” Max asked cautiously. He didn’t know if he should be upset or happy to see his Dupe [duplicate]. 

“We, we thought you were dead.” Liz practically whispered from behind Max’s back.

“Not quite, Duchess, though Lonnie an’ Rath sure seemed to want me that way, which is way whacked, yo. But I’s heard that they got what waz comin’ to ’em so good for you, Duke.” Zan’s smile faded as he added, with an edge to his voice, “You didn’ hurt my Ava, didja? Cuz there’d be hell to pay, twin bro or no, if you laid one hand on my woman.”

_I hit you and you hit me back  
We fall to the floor the rest of the day stands still  
Fine line between this and that  
When things go wrong I pretend the past isn't real  
I'm trapped in this memory  
And I'm left in the wake of the mistake slow to react  
So even though you're close to me  
You're still so distant  
And I can't bring you back_

Max got up, careful to leave Liz behind him with enough of the sheet with which to cover her body, found his robe, donned it, and then tossed Liz’s onto the bed as Zan remained leaning against the open French doors, waiting for an answer to his question.

“No, he didn’t harm her. She was the only one who wasn’t creepy,” Liz replied after she had put on her robe and stood to join her husband who was standing near the bathroom door, leaning against the wall.

Zan raised his eyebrow at that comment. Max quickly responded, “Sorry, but Lonnie and Rath were kind of scary, but Ava didn’t seem to be like them at all, she was actually more like Tess.”

“Yeah, but Ava didn’t seduce you, kill Alex, and then run back to Antar with your son,” Liz spit out, referring to Tess’ betrayal, before she could stop herself. Max placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close to him, telling her through their connection that it was okay, sending her calming thoughts.

Zan could sense what Max was doing even if he couldn’t hear the words, so he reached out to poke around in Liz’s head with his powers.

“Get out of my head, Zan,” Liz said after only a few moments. Max turned his head to glare at Zan, prompting Zan to apologize, sort of.

“K, sorry, Duchess, I’s jus’ wonderin’ what makes you so special that the Duke here would choose you over his Ava.”

_It's true the way I feel  
Was promised by your face  
The sound of your voice  
Painted on my memories  
Even if you're not with me  
I'm with you_

Max responded before Zan could say anymore, “Her name is Liz, Zan. What do you want from us?” This was the other, more alien half of himself? Max wondered in his head. So far, he was not impressed.

“Oh, I dunno, I guess a “thank-you-Zan-for-savin’-our-lives-tonight” wouldn’ be out of the question.” He held up a hand as Max opened his mouth to protest that he could have and was about to do the same thing to protect them, and continued. “But what I really came by for was ta let you two know that that lunatic that shot at your car is still on the loose, and he probably ain’t gonna stop till one of your friends is caput, no more, finito.”

_You, now I see, keeping everything inside  
With you  
You, now I see, even when I close my eyes  
With you  
You, now I see, keeping everything inside  
With you  
You, now I see, even when I close my eyes_

“How come you haven’t shown yourself to us before?” Liz asked, ignoring Zan’s sarcastic comment. She was now very perplexed at Zan’s sudden appearance in their lives after more than 10 years.

“Didn’ know you was here,” was Zan’s simple answer. He turned to walk back out to the balcony. “See you two love-boirds laterz.” And with that Zan jumped off the balcony rail to land as graceful as a cat on the ground, three stories below. Then he was gone into the dark night.

_No, no matter how far we've come  
I can't wait to see tomorrow  
No, no matter how far we've come I  
I can't wait to see tomorrow_

_With you  
You, now I see, keeping everything inside  
With you  
You, now I see, even when I close my eyes  
With you  
You, now I see, keeping everything inside  
With you  
You, now I see, even when I close my eyes_


	20. Breathe In

“Where did you go?” Gene Taylor said by way of greeting as Zan sauntered into the kitchen area at the back of the abandoned warehouse in the Bronx. Gene was sitting at the small, round, plastic table that was littered with beer cans and an empty pizza box.

“Who’re you, my motha? I went out, yo… man, is there nothin’ to eat in this joint?” Zan shot back at the suspended cop as he rifled through the old fashioned refrigerator with the freezer section sitting on top of the lower half. He found a bottle of A&W root beer towards the back of the fridge, pulled it out and shut the door. Zan moved over to lean against the sink, slowly drinking his soda and not looking at anything in particular on the kitchen table.

Then Zan saw the comics section of the New York Post lying on top of the pizza box and leaned over to grab it while pretty much ignoring Gene, who wasn’t exactly trying to strike up a conversation either. He sat there nursing his half-empty Budweiser, occasionally glancing over at Zan as he chuckled at the antics of the comic-strip characters and sipped his root beer.

Something about Zan just creeped Gene out but he couldn’t put his finger on it. It was more of an uneasy feeling; like this was a person that you just did not mess with if you didn’t want to pay the consequences. Zan exuded a sort of arrogant confidence, evident in his walk, his manner, and even in his street slang, of that of an important man who knew his place in the scheme of things. Sometimes Gene thought he walked around the warehouse like he owned it, like royalty or something.

Zan interrupted Gene’s thoughts to remark under his breath, “That Garfield. He cracks me up, yo.”

Gene looked up at Zan and took in his spiky, dread-locked dark brown hair, the scruffy goatee, his earrings, his eyebrow and lip piercings, the strange-looking tattoos on both of his arms, and his dark, sort of ratty clothing. Then he realized that Zan more or less resembled that man he had seen earlier that night, the one that owned the black Porsche. He hadn’t gotten a very good look at that man but there was no mistaking the fact that the two men seemed to resemble each other, aside from the more obvious superficial differences.

At that moment, another man walked into the kitchen. “Hey, have either of you guys seen two stray bullets lying around? We was takin’ some inventory and there’s a box missing two.”

“Why don’t you ask Taylor,” Zan said without taking his eyes off the newspaper.

Gene gave Zan a ‘who me?’ innocent look before turning back to the other man dressed in fatigues, “No man, I haven’t seen any. Maybe they rolled under one of the crates.”

“Yeah, ok. But keep an eye out for ‘em, will ya? We don’ want the boss gettin’ all up in our faces about missing ammo, man.” The man left the kitchen to go back to the main room, leaving Gene to give Zan a ‘what did you say that for?’ glare.

“ ’Sup?” Zan asked when he noticed Gene glaring at him.

“I’m just curious at to why you’d say that to him.”

“Oh, no reason. I’s jus’ thought I saw you lookin’ over that open crate of ammo boxes this afternoon, no big,” Zan said nonchalantly as he turned the Comics page over to read the last group. 

“Well, that…I was just checking them out to see what caliber they were. They’re larger but are surprisingly light for their size, I’ve heard. It’s probably the hollow-point tip that does it.”

“Oh. So I’s didn’ see you pocket two of dem, then? Musta been temptin’ what with that tight rifle you’s got.” Zan folded the newspaper back up and tossed it onto the table, then crossed his arms across his chest and regarded Gene.

Gene shifted in his seat and looked around a bit nervously, like he was making sure no one else was in ear shot. He stared at Zan for a few moments, seemingly weighing his options, and then spoke. “Okay fine. So I took a few bullets out for “target practice” you could say.” There was a gleam in his eye that Zan recognized immediately. The gleam of the man who thinks he’s done something really big and is too proud of it to keep from boasting to others.

“Target practice, eh? I don’ think I’s eva seen you shoot. I bet you’s a good shot with that rifle, bein’ on the police force and all. Where’d you do this here target practice?” Zan inquired.

At that moment, the same man from earlier walked past the entrance to the kitchen. Zan turned toward the open door and called out, “Hey, Tony! Whaz the 411 on da inventory? Are they’s done yet?”

Tony stuck his head in the room to answer, “Yo check it, just about everyone’s gone, we’s just puttin’ a few boxes back on the crates, then we’s goin’. See ya tomorrow, Zan.”

“Aight. Laterz, Tony.”

Zan turned back to Gene. “Sorry ’bout that. You’s was sayin’…”

Gene looked at the place Tony had just vacated moments before for a few seconds before turning back to Zan, and took a swig of his beer. “Little Italy.”

“Nice. What’d you find ta use as target practice down there? I betcha all them boirds make for some nice shootin’.”

“Yeah, only I had bigger targets than just birds. More like life-sized pests. And I went down there to get rid of those pests, once and for all.” A malevolent glint shone in Gene’s eyes. “Stupid bitch had it comin’. And her ape man, too.” He practically spit out the last part. His hands were bunched into fists on the table, the knuckles starting to turn white.

“Whoa man, they’s musta really been askin’ for it then huh, what’d they do? Didja cap ’em at the same time or separately?”

Gene had finished one beer and was now half way through another. Zan suspected that the other three empty beer bottles were his too. “Hah, actually it was really easy. All I hadda do was wait for them to get into that insanely expensive Porsche with their friends and then I called Porter on her cell phone to make sure she knew she was gettin’ hers, you know, and then I hung up and popped both of ’em while the other guy who, remar-kably, looks a lot like you for some odd reason, ’cept no dreads or nothin’, while he was pulling out the cover for the car. Shame ’bout that really.”

“What? About cappin’ those two?” Zan asked.

“No. No. About the car. Now the poor thing has two holes in the roof, and blood all over the inside. That’s going to ruin the interior.” Gene looked up at Zan from where he had been contemplating the pizza box on the table. “Why you so interested all of a sudden in my rifle? I thought for sure you’d have at least one or two yourself.”

“You got all that?” Zan pressed a finger to his ear to hear the answer. “Ok good.”

“Got all what? What’s good?” Gene asked in a sort of daze. The next few seconds wiped the confusion right off Gene Taylor’s face and replaced it with shocked dismay. At Zan’s reply, a police team came barging into the kitchen area of the warehouse, all training their weapons on a very startled and drunk, soon-to-be ex-cop.

“Put your hands up! Gene Taylor, you are under arrest for the attempted murders of Detective Jane Porter and John Clayton Jr., reckless endangerment of others in public…..” Zan continued on, listing his offenses, his street slang completely gone, replaced by a normal New York accent. He read Gene his rights, cuffed him, and led him out of the warehouse to the waiting squad car.

Gene was being shoved into the back seat when he suddenly burst out, “Wait! What do you mean ‘attempted’? I shot them, I did, I know I did! They’re supposed ta be dead, dead I tell--” His voice was cut off by the slamming of the car door, but he continued to rant and rave from the inside.

The officers inside took stock of the ammunition crates and made the necessary arrangements to cart them away. The few remaining thugs who were on the first round of guard duty had been the first to be taken down and locked up in the other available squad cars.

Zan turned to one of his undercover partners, and gloated, returning to using his street slang, “Hey Tony, who da man?!”

“You da man, Zan! You da man.”

*****

Sam and Jane were briefed by Zan’s undercover team from a neighboring district the next morning down at Jane’s precinct, where they booked Gene and put him in a holding cell for questioning later on. When Max and Liz arrived, they gave their stories about the shooting to Sam in one of the interview rooms and then were filled in on the events of the previous night as well. Afterwards everyone met up on the steps outside the precinct in the late morning sun.

Tarzan had joined them to give his account of the events and now stood next to Jane, one arm around her waist, as they stood at the top of the stone steps. Max and Liz stood across from them, looking at Zan with new eyes. He was dressed in nicer looking clothes than he had been the night before, but they were still wrinkled and worn, a lot like Tarzan’s actually, except that Zan was wearing combat boots. Sam stood leaning against a pillar, a little bit off to the side, content to watch things unfold.

Jane was the first to break the silence that had descended over the group. “So Max, you never mentioned you had a twin brother on the force.”

Zan spoke up before Max could open his mouth to respond. “That’s because he didn’t know he still had a twin brother, Detective Porter. He was wrongly informed by a…cousin of ours that I had been run over by a truck one night. That was over 10 years ago.” Zan decided that Lonnie could be relegated to cousin status for the sake of not having to explain about the other Dupes.

“Oh, that must have been terrible for you Max, and definitely for you, Detective Langley, seeing as how you are most certainly not dead.” Jane wanted to ask more questions but didn’t want to pry, and this wasn’t the best time for such inquiries anyway.

At the mention of Zan’s apparently new last name that took after the Dupes’ protector, Max and Liz looked over at Zan, who flashed them one of his devilish smiles.

// _We gots lots to talk about, Duke. But we’s also gots lots of time, ain’t that right, Duchess._ // Zan said to them both through their telepathic connection, winking in the process.

The couple just nodded and smiled at, hopefully, the newest addition to their family, and turned back to Sam, Jane, and Tarzan. They said their goodbyes and thanks, and the three went off to eat lunch at Max and Liz’s favorite Mexican restaurant that reminded them of their home in Roswell.

Sam pushed off from the pillar and said, “Well I don’t know about you two, but I’m heading out for my lunch date now, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll see y’all later…” He winked at Jane, looked to Tarzan, then back to Jane and gave her a devious grin, “or not.” Sam laughed at the slight blush he was able to elicit from her and walked down the steps and around the corner to his car.

Fifteen minutes later Jane and Tarzan walked into in her apartment foyer. She turned to face Tarzan, who slid both hands around her waist and pulled her up against his taut chest. She grinned at him and he grinned back, reaching forward slightly to capture her lips in a sweet kiss that soon started growing with passion.

Jane pulled her head back only enough to catch her breath, and then said in a silky voice, “Make a wish.”

“I don’t have to.” Tarzan said without skipping a beat.

Jane grinned automatically. “And why not?”

Tarzan picked her up in his strong arms as he carried her off to their bedroom and replied, “Because it’s about to come true.”

*****

**"Breathe In" by Paloalto**

_Your car crashed  
Buckled up from heaven  
Feeling like it's poison  
When there's no one around  
Your whole life sectioned off from red ropes  
Wishing you could see who  
But you're stuck in the ground_

_With this mini side-show  
Let the scenes go  
It's obvious that you won  
Would you say it feels slow?  
Would you stay home?  
How do you feel?  
It's how do you feel (suffocated)_

_Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Look what's all around you  
Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Look what's all around you_

_Taking off in circles  
Wondering if it's worth it  
You're innocent and ignoble  
But this main line system  
Has a glitch in it  
It's ignorance has been shown  
When you realize it's paid for  
Wondering where the story's gone  
It's how do you feel  
It's how do you feel (suffocated)_

_Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Look what's all around you  
Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Look what's all around you_

_Doesn't matter if you run the race  
Doesn't matter if you're gonna win  
When you're taking off a road  
And you're locked on to the car  
It's ok_

_Life's a daisy  
Far too busy  
Never stops  
Feeling heavy  
Tried to steady  
It's all you've got_

_Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Look what's all around you  
Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Breathe in  
Look what's all around you_

♥ The End ♥


End file.
